Sea/Shore

A contemplation of the sea, the land and the line dividing the two - does such a thing really exist? This thought-provoking 16mm film by Chris Welsby, one of our leading artist-filmmakers, is filmed as if on that cusp, the / between sea and shore.

Welsby has written: “If there is a line at all, it only exists for a second or so, and is never repeated again. This film was shot on this imaginary line, but the leading or trailing edge of the wave is never represented. The shore line is replaced by a frame line which divides each one-second "take" from its neighbour. The frame is either filled with water or littered with stones and sand exposed after the wave has receded. The image on the screen, the organic rhythm of the waves, is not destroyed by the violence of the structures imposed upon it. Nature emerges uninhibited, revealing yet further complexities of shape and form. The illusory shore line remains invisible, trapped on celluloid, hidden by the mechanics of the projector, and de-materialised by the illusion of cinematographic movement.”