Intertidal Works: Half Submerged at High Tide

Design a public artwork sited in the intertidal zone, so the sea rewrites it twice a day. Show a group of tall slender vertical elements standing on a wide flat sand beach, each some five metres high and spaced twenty metres apart in a long line running out from the shore toward the water. Detail the tide's action as the work's medium: the elements nearest the land stand dry on rippled sand, those further out stand in shallow water with reflections beneath them, and the furthest are submerged to two thirds of their height with only their tops showing. Show each element as recording its own tidal history in bands up its surface: clean weathered metal at the top, then a band of grey-green algae, then a rough encrustation of barnacles and small shells at the lowest permanently wet zone, so the water level is legible on every one. Detail the material as cast iron or weathering steel, heavily corroded and pitted, its texture entirely reshaped by the salt. Show the beach as vast and nearly empty with a very low horizon, wet sand mirroring a huge sky. Detail a solitary figure walking between two of the elements. Set it on a broad north European tidal flat. Show flat silvery light at low tide. Photorealistic, elemental, rust and silver on wet sand, low eye-level view along the line.