Tension
Tension tends to be viewed as uncomfortable, something to avoid. Yet it is there, at the points where forces are pulling in different directions, that a space is created. Here we find life that exists between and because of the opposing things. The opposition is necessary, as long as it is balanced, for this life to exist. How can we understand hot without cold? Without one there is no other, and where there is no balance both are consumed. The reality we experience might be the result of a similar process – a continuous tension between the changing opposites.
Moving image installation, 2014
The video shows a part of the River Creed on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. After heavy rains the river was full and boisterous; dark and light waters kept flowing restlessly and recklessly towards each other. It became a delightful and fascinating example of tension in nature, of conflicting forces resulting in something beautiful and lively, which elegantly reflects the way our reality is created and changed.