Negative Tides. 2020. Video installation.
Negative Tides, 2020, is a physical installation with a cinemagraph (a still image with embedded video loops that creates the illusion of a subtle animation) of a tide pool in Santa Cruz during the King Tides. The King Tides are natural phenomena that occur twice a year when the moon, Earth, and sun are aligned and coastal areas experience the most extreme difference in low and high tides. During a period of 24 hours entire tidal worlds are uncovered as the ocean recedes and extreme high tides allow us to experience for a brief moment a reality that foregrounds the impact of rising sea levels due to climate change. The glitch aesthetic of the work plays with temporality and creates a distancing effect through artificiality when contrasted with the naturalism of the video which was shot at Mitchell’s Cove in Santa Cruz. A kitschy tablecloth with tropical reef fish completes an altar set with three tea cups that generate an invisible sense of thirst for water. The obfuscation of the past, present, and future in the work created an eerie glimpse of a future in which we can only experience the ocean in a digital realm.