Mixed media (optical fibre, LED light source, clam shells)
Reepicheep’s Wave is inspired by The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis. In the final chapter of the book the galleon Dawn Treader sails into a freshwater sea of lilies (the Silver Sea) from a saltwater sea. Lewis describes a paradoxical tsunami: a moving wave that stays in one place like a glassy wall. The wave’s namesake, Reepicheep, is the courageous Narnian mouse whose life ambition is to reach the land of Aslan (our equivalent to Heaven/Nirvana). Reepicheep’s Wave is a beautiful literary device that conveys a journey taken from one reality to another. Similarly, Australian Peter Weir’s film The Last Wave alludes to a mythical tsunami that once wreaked havoc over huge swathes of what is now New South Wales. The idea of creating a monumental wave in three dimensions has been an ambition of mine for many years, focusing initially on the positive nature of Reepicheep’s Wave (celebrating heaven’s gate).
