Your Waves Go Over Me
13 Jul 2021 - 30 Oct 2021
Location: Hostry
A unique art installation was created in the Hostry as part of the Dippy on Tour: A Natural History Adventure exhibition at Norwich Cathedral.
Norfolk-based artist Mark Reed's stunning installation of a walk-through wave of 3,000 fish was called Your Waves Go Over Me and aimed to encourage us all to think about the importance of water through the ages, from the time of dinosaurs right through to the modern day.
A closer look at Your Waves Go Over Me
The Bible and modern science differ about many things, but they are in entire agreement that life as we know it emerged from water. Dippy the Diplodocus could not exist without water, and neither can human beings today. As part of Norwich Cathedral’s response to the visit of Dippy, Mark Reed’s sculpture encouraged us to reflect on the generative power of the sea and our total dependence on healthy waters for the future of life on Earth.
The wave shimmers with the movement of fish whose shapes represent the evolution of species from the ancient Hadean eon to the present day. The fish was a symbol for Christians from the early days of the faith, in part because they came to new birth through the waters of Baptism.
The title of the sculpture is a quotation from the Psalms (42.9): ‘All thy waves and storms are gone over me.’ The ability of our visitors to immerse themselves in this wave is a reminder of our ambivalent relationship with the untamed waters. We remember holidays by the sea and the excitement of plunging into waves, but also the overwhelming destructive power of water in storm, tsunami, and flood.
Your Waves Go Over Me was part of the Dippy on Tour: A Natural History Adventure exhibition at Norwich Cathedral from 13 July 2021 until 30 October 2021. Norwich was the final stop on Dippy's eight-venue tour and the exhibition has been brought to Norwich Cathedral and visitors across the UK by the Natural History Museum in partnership with the Garfield Weston Foundation and supported by Dell EMC and Williams & Hill. Barratt and Cooke was the regional sponsor for the exhibition.