Night Ships Passing

This long exposure night image is around two hours. The text on the right-hand side are the names of all the ships (plus origin and destination country, speed and location) that passed through during the exposure. The English Channel has traffic on both the UK-Europe and North Sea-Atlantic routes, and is the world's busiest seaway, with over 500 ships per day. Global commodities now flow at extraordinary rates in and out of the channel yet international freight is abstract, most of us never see it up close. Despite these sea roads becoming increasingly congested, once out on the vast ocean, life at sea can still feel like floating in an abyss. From the 'Beneath the Waves' series This work is an opportunity to meditate upon our place within the world, against the immense spaces and epic timescales evoked by the sea. It reminds us of our interconnectedness and the diverse, history that shapes who we are. The seas are our only true border, others are political fictions. An open border but a dangerous one, between the known and unknown, fluctuating, unfixed, permeable. We find ourselves transfixed by the sea, it is at once calming yet unknowable, conjuring a sense of awe and wonder. This work engages with what it is like to be at the mercy of something vast and our attempts to comprehend, control, exploit and protect it. The oceans are overwhelming, ever changing, and with unfathomable depths. The embedded data, symbols, impossible geometry, numbers or words will reveal hidden forces of coastal nature; winds, tides, geology, marine life, and our dogged, sometimes futile attempts to conquer them. This work was originally commissioned through the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust Hospital Redevelopment Public Art Programme.