The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls

The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls is an exhibition drawing inspiration from a poem from Ultima Thule (1880), one of the last collections published by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882). The poem can be interpreted as a metaphor for life’s transient nature and death’s enigma. The ocean’s eradication of the wanderer’s tracks suggests the complete erasure of their existence from the mortal realm. Death, in this context, is depicted as irreversible and absolute. The recurring phrase “the tide rises, the tide falls” amplifies this unsettling sense of finality.

The works of seven Master’s students—Róisín Doherty, Em, Jed Gjerek, Taïm Haimet, Amy Kramer, Emma Jane Mooney, and Anastasiia Rachok—investigate cultural, environmental, and societal issues of our time. Their research explores the complexities of modern life, where colonization, information overload, and rapid technological progress have transformed our experiences. In this fast-paced world, we often find ourselves floating, navigating a sea of data where the constant flow of digital content easily washes away significant experiences. The students’ work reflects on how we, as individuals, have become wanderers in our new environments, both physical and digital, where a simple swipe of a finger can erase valuable insights into our disrupted world and selves.

Through a series of photographs, the students explore displacement and the urge to pursue comfort and rejuvenation. The photography medium also serves as a silent witness to the emotions, sensations, and understandings of a particular moment, frozen in time. The colonies of microorganisms inhabiting natural and human forms are examined in meticulously hand-formed societies of ceramics, questioning elements of truth and fabrication. Fantastical haptic worlds, represented in new ways of digital storytelling and animation sets, offer curious behind-the-scenes opportunities to connect with viewers and the animation narrative. The exhibition also proposes participation in immersive installations transcending traditional modes of communication, in collaboration between humans and machines, or joining what one could describe as an ancient version of the Last Supper between gods and victims of the violent Apocalypse of Gaza.

The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls is a point of pause where the sea is a healing force to wash our murky feet from sleepwalking through a nightmare of our current realities. The texture of the sand becomes a foundation for building a new world where a single self is a small particle and can only be understood as a collective meaningful desire for kindness and love.

Special thanks to the School of Design and Creative Arts, ATU and Galway Arts Centre.

Soňa Šmédková is a Czech independent emerging curator and multidisciplinary artist based in Galway, Ireland. She has been a co-director of Artspace Studios Galway since 2023. Arts Council Ireland and Galway City Council have supported Soňa’s practice since she gained First-class Honours in Master of Arts in Creative Practice at the School of Design and Creative Arts, ATU, Galway in 2021. In the fourth year of her undergrad studies, she was an integral member of the student-led curating team for an exhibition for GMIT contemporary art graduates Not a Degree Show in Connacht Tribune Printworks, funded by Galway City Council. In early 2022 she became a member of the Board of Directors at 126 Artist–Run Gallery and the same year she was a curator of an exhibition A Remix of Change at 126 Gallery as part of the Galway International Arts Festival. Soňa was invited to curate the 2023 MA show Fissure at the Galway Arts Centre which expanded her passion to work with emerging and underrepresented artists. Her work has been exhibited in Ireland, Belgium and Germany.