Nick Crowe
The Drowning of Tuvalu

The Street, Tankerton Slopes

Time dependent on tides. Full details of times and tides at bottom of page.

All Nick Crowe images - The Drowning of Tuvalu - are mock ups.

Nick Crowe’s incoming tide performance is enacted by large, shallow lime concrete sculptures modelling the nine islands of Tuvalu, which are gradually submerged on ‘The Street’, a long tidal spit. The sculptures model Tuvalu, population ten thousand, a group of low lying reef atolls and coral islands in the South Pacific.

As global sea levels rise, Tuvalu is the first landmass that is destined to be entirely lost to the sea. Whitstable itself is a low-lying town with a history of flooding, and although sea levels are rising locally at a less extreme rate than in the South Pacific, Whitstable is also likely to feel the effects.

There will be a twice-daily performance where visitors will be invited to use the beach as a viewing area to witness the drowning of Tuvalu in an accelerated form. The sculptures are revealed each day as the tide goes out, and are then submerged, or 'drowned', as the tide comes in. The time that the work can be seen will change each day with the tides. The Drowning of Tuvalu poignantly reflects on loss, as well as subtly raising issues of global importance.

This project has been made possible by the generous support of the Henry Moore Foundation. The Project Curator is Alice Sharp.

Nick Crowe is based in Berlin and Manchester. Recent exhibitions including Getting On, Chisenhale Gallery, London; The Middelburg Triennale, Middelburg, Netherlands; Romantic Detachment, PS1, New York; Operation Telic, Con'Temporary, Berlin; Commemorative Glass, Cornerhouse, Manchester, and At 25 Metres at FACT, Liverpool with regular collaborator Ian Rawlinson.

Thanks to Professor Eelco Rohling; National Oceanography Centre;Colin P.Ingram, HM Coastguard; Neil Jordan, Canterbury City Council Engineers; Mike Wier, Whitstable Harbour Master; Whistable Sea Scouts and Rachel Reynolds at The Shed Studios.

Timetable
Work is visible from 4 hour and 30 minutes after high water.
Performances Start 1 hour 15 mins after low water.