Time and Tide

 Time and Tide

"The rise and fall of the mercurial Usk is a perfect metaphor for the collective unconscious of the people who straddle it. At its best, the vigour of surging tidewaters covers the basin, filling muddy banks, obscuring organic and inorganic detritus. A vast mirrored surface appears, with light reflected from sun, moon, electricity. Lake Usk. Contented water fowl glide. Small boats chug along a course now swollen with potential, re-imagined with hope. As if summoned by aquatic sprites, the human population also rises to the occasion. At times fuelled with curiosity and energy, the intrepid among them lust to conquer worlds beyond their reach. And yet, all too soon, new confidences come unstuck. Insecure in its self-proclaimed bravura, the river sucks in its cheeks, turns fickle, and abandons the reedy banks it merely flirted with. Retracted, it fees back to the briny sea, where bigger pickings lie. Equally defeated, the populace cede their own defeat to time and tide. The Sisyphean hangover of a town's unsustained ambition is doomed to continuously rise, fall and dredge the Usk's shores in its wake."

– Kitty Wake, June 2021

Usk high Bluecloudskies


Usk low Beachedwhale


Usk low Pinksmoke



Usk high Sunsetbanks







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