Taken over several days in April, during the height of the UK’s Covid 19 pandemic lockdown and from the same stretch of beach on the North Kent coast, this short film portrays the sea in all its variable states. Contrasting shots taken on the permitted daily walk at differing times of day capture cycles of high tide, low tide, wind, rain and sun.

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Many people feel grounded in nature, and being near the sea can have a meditative effect on an anxious state of mind. Although superficially the sea may change its appearance, it nevertheless retains its essence and sense of lastingness throughout the film. Why are people drawn to the sea? What can we gain from reflecting on it?

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Just like the sea, people can have up and down days. And just like the sea, it's natural to have moments where you feel calm, and moments that feel stormy, and days when you feel all of these things at once. Words from a poem by Robert Frost (‘Neither Out Far nor In Deep’) were chosen to serve as an acknowledgment of the seas mysterious and magnetic pull, in spite of, or maybe because of the fact that we cannot see below the surface. 

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Made for an online series inspired by and reflecting back on the Science Gallery London exhibition 'On Edge: Living in an Age of Anxiety'.