Macromareal (a rising tide lifts all boats)

Macromareal (a rising tide lifts all boats) approaches the tidal range of the Bay of Fundy and its documentation in tide tables and real data through a series of interrelated works that explore ways of understanding natural processes, and our relationship to those processes as perceived from different vantage points and through different scales of time. The history of human interaction with the Bay, including tide-related industries and oceanographic research in the Parrsboro area offered unique opportunities to create a body of work that explores the relationships between human actions, the coastal landscape, and tidal patterns and processes. Parrsboro’s proximity to the Fundy Geological Museum, the FORCE tidal power research station, the Ottawa House Museum, and Maritime Museum of the Atlantic presented further opportunities to investigate & incorporate both historical documents and current scientific research into our creative process. Moreover, the Bay and its tides also figure prominently in Mi’kmaw legend and story; this oral tradition situates geological history and processes firmly in the living memory of the Mi’kmaw, as known and understood history, independent of Western scientific assumptions of ‘authority’ on the subject.

Through the lens of the Fundy tides and their impact on a specific place (Parrsboro, NS), MACROMAREAL offers an opportunity to consider the different scales of time and memory we each experience (geological, tidal/celestial, transgenerational, relational, diurnal, the brevity of a human lifespan), and the processes of change, loss, and transformation inherent in each of them.

By extension, MACROMAREAL draws attention to the intersection of human activities, time and the tidal environment, particularly the cyclic, durational aspects of living systems, human life, and work on or near tidal waters. Humans have sought to understand and harness the power of the world’s tides historically, and in the present; now more than ever, it is vital to understand our relationship to (and impact on) this immensely powerful natural phenomenon.

This ongoing relationship also requires us to acknowledge the reciprocity involved in living and working on and near these waters and tides - and our responsibilities to the water and all the beings that live in it and draw sustenance from it.

A less extractive vision: one that is predicated on care, and balance, and a sensitivity to change.