A Bay.
The Bay.
To Bay.
At Bay.
On a body of water forming an indentation of the shoreline larger than a cove but smaller than a gulf extending into woodland comprising various laurel-like trees and shrubs and several magnolias, an animal of reddish-brown colour, having a reddish-brown body, wearing an honorary garland, askew, turned to face its pursuers.
Partially surrounded by hills, no longer in any position to flee, on the deck, in the space between the anchor windlass and the stern, the bay let out a deep and prolonged howl.
No part of Nova Scotia is more than 50 kilometres from the sea.
Thousands of kilometres of coastline comprised of innumerable islands, headlands, coastal estuaries, and inlets almost entirely surround the province, giving it a distinctive character. Three-quarters of the population of Nova Scotia live within 10 kilometres of salt-water. The sights, sounds, and odours of the sea, marshes, and beaches dwell in the mind of each inhabitant. No phenomenon connected with the sea is more familiar and more striking than the rise and fall of the tides. Twice a day the water recedes from the coast and twice a day it returns: rising against the rocky cliffs and over the sandy beaches, rushing up the tidal rivers, or creeping along innumerable channels among the coastal marshes. The rhythm of daily life is often determined by the tides. Harbours empty entirely, then quickly fill. Wharves surrounded by water at one time of day, may be high and dry at another.
No one in a boat should approach or depart from shore without knowing the stage of the tide and the flow of the tidal currents, and no visit to the shore should be planned without knowing whether the water is moving in or is receding down the beach.
STRUTS is a work of digital literature by J. R. Carpenter, commissioned by Brian Stefans for
Third Hand Plays hosted by Open Space at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Work on STRUTS began during an Open Studio Artist in Residence at
Struts Gallery & Faucet Media Centre, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada, May 22 - June 26, 2011.
Struts is dedicated to presenting artist-initiated expositions, performances, symposia, publications, demonstrations, workshops and residencies. Thank you John Murchie, Elli Hearte, Kristen Atkins, Rebecca Blankert, Amanda Fauteux, Andrew Maize, Elisabeth Belliveau, Jery Ropson, the Mount Alison University Library and really, the whole town of Sackville. I heart you all.
The photographs of the ends of the struts that support the seawall that protects the foreshore in front of
Linda Rae Dornan's cottage from the rising tides of the Northumberland Strait were taken May 23, 2011. Thank you Linda for your company, your energy and your generosity of spirit, for your car, your lamp and your struts, and for the long walks.
Thank you Maggie Pitts for pointing me toward the Saxby Gale of 1869, the storm we compare all possible storms to, and for providing the tide gauge data (to the right), which represents the monthly tide gauge averages for Shediac Bay from the month I was born to the month I moved from Canada to England. The gauge that measured these averages was destroyed in the same storm surge that damaged Linda Rae Dornan's seawall the night of 21 December 2010.
The Tantramar Marsh text is excerpted from
Writing Coastlines: The Operation of Estuaries, Islands and Beaches as Liminal Spaces in the Writings of Elizabeth Bishop, a paper written in residence at Struts and presented at "It Must Be Nova Scotia: Negotiating Place in the Writings of Elizabeth Bishop" which took place at University of King's College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, June 10-12, 2011. Thanks to Sandra Barry and Sym Corrigan in Halifax.
An extended version of the above-cited paper as well as an elaboration upon the critical context of STRUTS appears in Chapter 1. Section 1.3 of my PhD thesis,
Writing Coastlines: Locating Narrative Resonance in Transatlantic Communications Netowrks. Thanks to Phil Stenton.
Thanks to Ariane Savoie and blueOrange for undertaking a French translation of STRUTS.
And special thanks to Jerome Fletcher for support on both sides of the Atlantic.