KENT.- 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.