2006 Sequence - The Call of the Running Tide

Roger Polley and ]ohn Woodman have been observing and filming change along England's shorelines for more than a quarter of a century: the duration of this project is testimony to the depth of their study. Their research also has great breadth of scale, for while recording events that occur in the sky, or on the horizon, they also consider the microcosm of the water lapping at their feet: the two worlds are accorded the same degree of care and respect. Many of Polley and Woodman's observations involve processes of framing and sampling that record or measure the seemingly insignificant in order to draw our attention to its true significance and value. The littoral is a laboratory within which they conduct their macro and micro analyses of change in the English coastal landscape. This work is an ongoing dialogue with the constant flow of fluid change in nature, as evidenced through the tides and currents, ebbs and eddies, cycles of sun, moon and the seasons. The passage of nature's time is also marked by growth, decay and renewal: all these elemental themes characterise and continuously recur in Polley and Woodman's work.