The Tidal Sense, 2019
28×6 m tapered hemp canvas, electronics, audio recordings/sound installation, text, photography, podcast: 33 min. 14 sec. The podcast has been produced by Peter Meanwell and the dictionary was made in collaboration with Grace Dillon. Photography by Signe Lidén and Rolf Larsen.
The Tidal Sense is a sculpture and a sounding canvas that has spent several weeks stretched through the intertidal zone in the village of Ramberg, Lofoten, where it functioned as a 28 metre-long microphone membrane, tuning into the rhythm of the tide. At high tide it was partially covered by waves and water, and at low tide it encountered winds and weather. Within the exhibition space, the canvas has now become a speaker membrane, voicing the rhythm and sense of what it is to be part of this intertidal situation.
The research process of this work has opened up a series of questions, both through an ongoing experiential encounter with the structure and material of the canvas, and through its position within the intertidal zone. The questions, “How can the tidal make sense as a figure of long-term thinking?” and “What would constitute the tidal sense in itself?” were not only starting points for Signe’s residency, but they also formed the basis for a collection of recorded conversations with Grace Dillon (Indigenous Studies & Literature), Arjen Mülder (Biology and Media Theory), and Geir Olve Skeie (Neurology and Music), as well as talks with local visitors and the children from the school in Ramberg. These questions are put forward once again within the installation, in a podcast work, within photography, and within the displayed dictionary, which provides definitions of terms for long-term thinking that have been shared in translation.
The Tidal Sense is a new commission for LIAF 2019 / North Norwegian Art Centre. Signe Lidén took part in LIAF 2019’s artist-in-residence program.
Signe Lidén (b.1981) is an artist based in Oslo, Norway.
