Flood - awash with feelings

This beautiful image was found on the internet.
I don't know who the photographer is.

In the last few weeks, Jane and I have been getting down work on Flood, the installation we are creating for the Chorlton Arts Festival. Jane is mainly responsible for the climate change research, and will be doing the bulk of the making, and I'm doing the historic research, creating the flood map, and material for the flood walk. A large part of my subconscious has been mulling over flood questions. Where do you measure a flood from? From the top of the bank or the normal level of the river?  How do you measure the 'normal' level of a river?  Is the height above sea level more important than the influence of the river?  Do floods travel upstream?

And now the rest of the world is sharing this dreadful fascination with floods. I've tried not to turn the Japanese experience into some sort of voyeuristic fetish.  But when I was sent the link to this film, I finally understood the power of the sea.  The images have lodged so strongly in my mind, that last nights walk home from work was full of shadows of rising water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-zfCBCq-8I

By the time the installation is put up, something else will be top of the news, but I hope it will bring to mind what we have learnt in the last days and contribute to the campaign to halt climate change.

Flood will be showing at the Chorlton Arts Festival Big Art Walk from 19th - 29th May http://chorltonartsfestival.com/