Estuary-Scapes
Estuary-Scapes
Living in an estuary village in West Wales, Sarah has inevitably been influenced by her daily walks and life in the locality. The impressions on the coast marked by the tide, winds, objects and creatures on the sands, are unique and transient; the sands are like a tabla rasa being erased twice a lunar day by the tides which come are pulled in and out, the force of the moon over a spinning earth. Carmarthen Bay, being part of the Bristol Channel tidal range, the second highest in the world, has a particularly dramatic ecotide.
Sarah ran a symposium and estuary walk during a two day event as part of CROFT LAB, a Space Place Practice residency at The Laundrette Studio in Bristol.
This involved a gathering of artists/academics on a River Severn estuary walk followed by a Symposium the following day titled Estuary- scapes with the invited speakers presenting their work in response to estuaries.
ARMS OF A BOILING TIDE - Artists Symposium and workshop. May 19th at Spike Island, Bristol
Arms of a boiling tide – a symposium exploring artistic responses to estuaries, organised by artist and Spike Island Associate Sarah Rhys.
Estuaries are ‘intertidal zones’ where the sea and rivers meet. Their waters come together only at high tide, where their conflicting currents meet, and watery mayhem ensues.
Estuaries are also defined as ‘ecotones’; “transition areas between two adjacent but different ecosystems, ecotones appear as both gradual shifts and abrupt demarcations. But more than just a marker of separation or even a marker of connection (although importantly both of these things), an ecotone is also a zone of fecundity, creativity, transformation; of becoming, assembling, multiplying; of diverging, differentiating, relinquishing. Something happens. Estuaries, tidal zones, wetlands: these are all liminal spaces where "two complex systems meet, embrace, clash and transform one another."" - Astrida Neimanis, Hydrofeminism: or, on Becoming a Body of Water (2012)
This day-long symposium at Spike Island will feature presentations from artists Rebecca Goddard, Heather Green, Owain Jones, Alexis Over-Papatzaneteas and Sarah as well as opportunities for open discussion. Sarah will run an artist workshop based on the tidal ecologies of the River Avon and its relationship to Spike Island during the afternoon.
The Then Map. 2024. Altered map and Indian ink. Sarah Rhys