Mark Ashby
Terra Nova Rural Park, 2431 Westminster Hwy.
Area:
Thompson
Location:
Enter the park from the north end on River Rd. It is located on the east of the viewing platform on the southern end of the slough.
photo by artist
Materials:
Western red cedar, weathering steel, pvc, stainless and galvanized steel.
Program: Civic
Ownership: Civic
Sponsored By: City of Richmond
Description of Work
Constructed from western red cedar, the 28 water-jet cut planks of the Perigeal Raft
graphically describe the ebb and flood of the tides in one 28 day cycle. Like the lubberlines inscribed in the gunwale of a sea-faring canoe, the facets of the Raft’s planks trace the cosmological forces that profoundly shape our coastal environment.
Artist Statement
Agricultural practice has, since antiquity, been bound by the phenomenology of place.
Careful observation of seasonal change combined with studious attention to celestial
movement has governed the rituals of each agricultural season. The coastal ecology of the Fraser River delta is similarly bound to the seasonal flow of the river and the cyclic wash of the tides.
Where the islands of Richmond are described by the flow of the Fraser River, Terra Nova Rural Park is surrounded by tidal waters that inundate the surrounding salt-water marshes daily, nourishing the coastal ecology and creating a uniquely dynamic habitat.
Governed by the alignment of the Earth, Sun and Moon, tidal fluctuations can be precisely anticipated. The Perigeal Raft is a device that maps the diurnal cycles of tide, moon and movement over the course of one lunar cycle. Inscribed with these phenomena, the Raft binds the traditional clock of agricultural practice to the phenomena that shape the coastal ecology.
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