After the Storm
After the Storm is a sonic sculpture made with artist Angela Thwaites for the Collaborations exhibition curated by Dr Vanessa Cutler and Dr Max Stewart at Wolverhampton Art Gallery in 2022. It is the result of artistic exploration of locations along the East Anglian coast and marshlands. These environments, while vulnerable to climatic change in terms of erosion and destruction of wildlife habitat, also offer hope for nature- based solutions to climate emergency through carbon capture and storage by its flora and sediments.
Fallen trees and buildings at the foot of eroding cliffs and entanglements deposited by the sea or blown by the wind during stormy weather inform the visual, material and textural qualities of ‘After the Storm’ and serve as a metaphor for climate emergency and other crises: Covid-19 pandemic, economic recession and war.
As well as visual, tactile elements the artwork includes interactive sound. After the Storm includes three crafted copper and glass sensors that trigger sound when visitors hover their hands over them to listen, transporting them in their imagination to the coast. Please play the video clip showing audience interaction.
Covehithe and Benacre beaches in Suffolk and Abbott’s Hall saltmarsh in Essex provided field recordings and fragments of material - sandstone, seaweed, and branches deposited by the sea or blown by the wind during stormy weather. Some of this flotsam and jetsam was utilized directly in the making. Other finds were translated into glass and other media, through analogue and digital processes including mould-making, casting and water jet cutting.
After the Storm embodies the artists’ shared concern about climate change and its impact on the environment we live in. The carbon impact of their making process was considered. In addition to the beach finds recycled materials were used where possible, including salvaged glass sheets, copper wire, rope and metal bars, glass waste from silo enamelling and offcuts from glass reservoirs and casts.