Between Tides

Between Tides is a collection of drawings, sound and video that was featured in Keeping Score: Tracing Time at Mosman Art Gallery in 2022. This was the second collaborative exhibition between Mosman Art Gallery and Parramatta Artists' Studio and included the work of 7 Parramatta Artists' Studio Alumni: Tom Blake, Harriet Body, Jess Bradford, Cindy Yuen-Zhe Chen, Kerrie Kenton, Garry Trinh and Justine Youssef.

Created across 2021 and 2022 on Long Reef headland in Sydney, Australia, these works respond to the fast-eroding coastline, the cyclical power of tides, and ancient Triassic fossils of crustacean habitats through durational, embodied engagements.

Excerpts from “Gestures Through Time” by Saskia Beudel.

In Fragments Between Tides the long, flat surface of three scrolls displays multiple charcoal rubbings of fossils. The first scroll was made during one low tide, the second during two low tides, and so on. Accordingly, each scroll is longer than the last. Rhythms of tidal patterns set constraints on the working process – Chen could perform the rubbings only until caught by rising water and during periods when low tide fell during daylight.

The fossils are large nodular formations at the foot of a crumbling, fast-receding cliff. According to geologists, they’re fossilised interiors of burrows excavated by a Triassic creature – likely an estuarine crustacean. Delicate, repetitive marks on the rock surfaces are excavation marks left by the creature as it fashioned the inner walls of its dwelling. 

“They’re gestures through time,” says Chen. “A long-distant ancestor created a home here.”

In response to these almost imponderable timescales – the Triassic period occurred between 252 to 201 million years ago – she creates her own gestures in return.

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To create Gestures Between Tides, Chen strapped small microphones to her wrists and positioned a recording device and two speakers between red boulders punctured with hollows. Gestures is not simply a record of environmental sound; it’s also an index of the artist’s body positioned in the landscape as she searches for and creates shifts in timbre and tone. At the boulder’s base the pitch is low; within a cavity it shifts upward. Gestures plays with these inflections. “I let sound guide where I go,” says Chen. Incidental activity, too, explodes into the recording: the sudden piping of a kestrel chick, the high-pitched calls of an adult delivering food.

© Saskia Beudel, Mosman Art Gallery and Parramatta Artists’ Studios.