Coastline2024
Coastline is a moving image work with sound. The project is inspired by the increasingly common phenomenon of climate migration.
The project focuses on Fairbourne, a controversial coastal village in Wales. Due to rising sea levels, the local council decided in 2013 not to defend the village indefinitely. Subsequently, Fairbourne was listed as a managed retreat area and planned to be gradually disbanded over the next 30 years, and the local villagers were therefore known as the first batch of potential ‘climate refugees’ in the UK.
Coastline captures and documents what Fairbourne will look like when it becomes a managed retreat area, and is narrated using interview footage of local residents as the driving story of the film. In the film, the artist documents community spaces and shoreline landscapes, juxtaposing the sense of serenity the visual image itself brings with the underlying tension of an uncertain future for coastal communities, revealing the vulnerability of coastal communities and the urgent need to address the environmental challenges of our times.
By exploring the delicate relationship between human activity, communities, and the ocean, the artist reflects on the broader impacts of climate change and emphasizes the need for sustainable solutions to these slow-onset yet critically important changes.
Coastline, 2024
Single-channel video installation, 5mins, looped.