T I D E

2021

Pen in process of drawing with sand on paper for T I D E (2021, video still image)

TIDE records trace memories of the movement of sea water and sand at the water’s edge, an elemental dance of sand and pen on paper.

TIDE is a drawing and video, both a standalone work and part of a video assemblage created for ‘Watermarks’, a Walking The Land project, screened at The Edge Conference 2021, University of the Highlands and Islands.

To watch TIDE click on image below or watch by clicking on these links for Vimeo or YouTube.

In its links to mapping, memories, imagination and the elements, it has connections to other watery works, such as Puddle Worlds and Fiver Rivers Line and to the earth of Groundlines journeys. It is an elemental exploration of place, of land and sea, earth and water.

These aspects are explored in Living Maps Review (Issue 12, Spring 2022, Mapworks section), ‘Groundlines and Puddle Worlds: maps as records of real and imaginary worlds.’

In contrast to these other works though, TIDE is created retrospectively in the studio. As described in the blog post, ‘Watermarks, tide, drawing and mapping water’ the making process involves “travelling in my imagination to memories of place, of elements, and environment. The abstract marks on the paper are mapping and choreographing my conversation with the elements, standing by the water’s edge, my feet in the sand, feeling the tide move in and out, the sand and sea shift. The sand is as much the drawing material as the pen and directs its flow; an elemental dance.”

Stills from TIDE, video and drawings by Ruth Broadbent (2021).
Pen on paper with trace memories of sand, sea, tide

To read more on the making of TIDE and ‘Watermarks, From the Water’s Edge’ (Walking The Land), with reflections on water and creative counter-mapping in this and other works, click here: ‘Watermarks, tide, drawing and mapping water’.

TIDE was a response to ‘Watermarks, From the Water’s Edge’. This body of work, created over a period of months, includes photographs, videos and drawings, created whilst walking and pausing by rivers and sea, and drawing in the rain.

The Watermarks video assemblage by Walking The Land can be watched here.

The Watermarks panel discussion at The Edge Conference can be watched here.

A still image from Tide was selected for ‘Ecologies of Drawing: In Situ’, a Drawing Research Network (DRN) exhibition, Loughborough University, 2022. Curated by Sara Schneckloth. The exhibition can be viewed here