A kinetic sculpture responds to the elements in Sydney Harbour, translating them into movement.
Artwork description
Commissioned as part of the Sydney Sculpture Walk for the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Tied to Tide is a kinetic sculpture that translates the eternal return of the tides as well as the more unpredictable wave wash and wind chop of Sydney Harbour into movement.
Red ladders respond to the wind while counter-balanced hardwood beams are connected to a float that transmits the water’s movements along their length.
The tides lower and raise the beams, hovering close and almost parallel to the water’s surface at high tide and angling high above the receding watermark at low tide.
In calm conditions the beams bob gently but when it is choppy their action is more staccato.
Artists
Jennifer Turpin and Michaelie Crawford are award-winning artists whose work focuses on the design and production of site-specific kinetic artworks in the public domain.
Their practice is based in Sydney where they have more than 30 years experience at the interface of art, science, nature and the built environment.
Turpin and Crawford’s works explore the rhythms of environmentally reactive movement and seek to heighten their audience’s awareness of being in time and in space.
