Time & tide

Giles, LG

Abstract

In this research Giles utilises photography to highlight the cultural importance and significance of piers as part of our built heritage and to further our appreciation of them as physical constructs for the formulation of private and public memory.

The final body of work (over a mile in length) constitutes an extensive survey of all of the remaining 54 seaside pleasure pier sites in England and Wales exhibited as a collection of large-scale timescape photographic panoramas displayed as public artworks along selected seafronts.

Key aims and objectives within this major touring public artwork range from engendering a wider appreciation of the importance and significance of the use of photography as a means of private, social and historical record to questioning and encouraging debate surrounding the significance of photography, specifically the panoramic format, notions of the fixed and frozen and the traditional relationship and use of this medium towards memory, reality and the passage of time.

Each panorama is a composite chosen from five-hundred to one-thousand images caught over several hours. This unique and painstaking method means that each panorama captures a sequence of events. These are the stories of all our childhood days out, a superreal reflection of what it is to wander enjoyably and aimlessly for a few hours; a Bayeux tapestry for the leisure age. Giles' panoramas are prompts of reminiscence, they baulk against the isolation of one instant and the clichéd representation of the seaside as a backdrop for the working-class-at-play.

Citation

Giles, L. Time & tide

• Digital Artefact Type: Image
• Deposit Date: Jun 17, 2015
• Related Public URLs: http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2005/06/17/albertdock_open_air_gallery_interview_feature.shtml; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/4097610.stm; http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2004/jun/27/features.magazine47; http://www.piers.org.uk/pierpages/NPS0news2004_08.html; http://www.timeandtide.info
• Additional Information: Funders : Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC);Arts Council;National Lottery Funding;National Touring Exhibitions; Projects : Time & Tide