On the Changing Tide
This piece emulates the shifting patterns of water. It draws from two personal experiences with the changing tides, one recent and the other from childhood.
I was a crew member on a ship that was unexpectedly port-bound for six days. The frustration of being stationary aboard a vessel that was designed for movement was partially eased by the dependable tide. It was the only agent of change in otherwise monotonous days. Our floating home would rise and fall as we waited impatiently to escape to the open water en route to Mackay. Sketching the mercurial topography of the water’s surface as the tide refreshed the harbour brought some relief from the stillness of waiting.
The final piece incorporates these abstracted textures into a hand-cut papercut, suspended over prismatic sheeting. The organic lines of the water’s surface are rendered in negative and connected on a single sheet of paper. Areas of texture are divided by bands of solid white, evoking childhood memories of skipping between sandbars in the Swan River at low tide, careful to keep an eye on the changing flow that indicated it was time to go home.
