Over [recent] years, the artist has held discussions with several experts in the field concerning sea level rise across the last century, including Prof. Dave Reay, chair of Carbon Management at Edinburgh University, and his previous collaborator, the oceanographer John Englander. These individuals have aided in Cass’s research, offering guidance and support.
Asking volunteers to offer up their birthplace and date of birth conceptually tightened Cass’s idea. As many different people from around the globe took part, it offered up a worldwide view of sea rise. The typical data we are presented with is that the global mean sea level has risen 21–25 centimetres since 1880, but this average figure doesn’t tell the whole story, far from it. Some places are experiencing a more dramatic rate of rise year-on-year than others. By mapping sea level changes across a person’s whole lifetime and attaching this rise to the place of their birth, the change feels more visceral. Both you and the waters have grown with time.
Installed, the letters act as a kind of kinetic wall sculpture; all the sheets overlapping to create a united, rustling organism. The letters are personalised in content and unique aesthetically; because of the varying surface, each has been adapted to engage with the ground it is typed upon. Like everything Cass creates, the letters use vintage paper: old receipts, invoices, or plain stationary, often over a century old, dating back to the time the warming began.
There is a warmth to these letters. The worn ink from the old typewriter, the physical space afforded to each neat block of text, the glowing sepia of the paper draws the viewer towards this swarm. They read one, then turn to its overlapping brother, then read another, and another until the scale of the issue is kindled inside them. Instead of a tsunamic realisation, it is a gradual swelling and churning of an internal tide that will continue to build beyond the bounds of this exhibition.
Kate Reeve–Edwards | Excerpt from the exhibition book
