Artist creates cars filled with water to show tide

4 hours ago

Cameron WeldonSouth West

News image — The water levels have been designed to rise and fall in response to tidal information in Plymouth

Plymouth Culture A close up of the side window of a black Ford Fiesta car parked on the side of the beach. The car is filled with water and has lights inside to show the underwater plants in the vehicle. — The water levels have been designed to rise and fall in response to tidal information in Plymouth

An art installation made up of cars filled with water has been created to illustrate the rise and fall of the tide.

Artist David Cotterrell has repurposed four old Ford Fiestas and filled them with water, the level of which will rise and fall in response to tidal information in Plymouth.

He said: "There's something wonderfully strange about encountering an ordinary car and realising that it is quietly responding to the sea."

The cars will be on display at Tinside Lido, Mount Batten, Tavistock Place and Mount Edgcumbe from Thursday, before they are moved to other parts of the city during September and October.

Plymouth Culture A black Ford Fiesta car parked on the side of the beach. The car is filled with water and has lights inside to show the underwater plants in the vehicle. There are some flowers planted in a planter next to the car. — The cars will be on display at Tinside Lido, Mount Batten, Tavistock Place and Mount Edgcumbe from Thursday

Cotterrell said: "We live alongside the tide, but it's remarkably easy to stop noticing it.

"I wanted to take that familiar rhythm and place it somewhere it doesn't belong – inside an object we barely give a second glance."

He removed the 25-year-old cars' engines and conventional operating systems and installed tanks, pumps, electrical systems, sensors, filtration, software and bespoke engineering.

Plymouth Culture said as the tides changed, water would move between a hidden reservoir and the visible cabin to create an "unexpected fragment of an intertidal environment within the city".

David Cotterrell is standing in front of a black Ford Fiesta which has seaweed visible inside it. He has long blonde hair and is wearing a black T-shirt with grey cargo trousers. He is smiling and is holding his left hand over his heart. Behind him is a stony beach and the sea. — David Cotterrell said he hoped the cars would make people pause and look again

Cotterrell said he hoped the cars would make people "pause, look again and perhaps notice the connections between Plymouth and the water that's all around us".

The installation, called Intertidal, is part of the Sea for Yourself programme led by Plymouth Culture in partnership with Plymouth Sound National Marine Park and Plymouth City Council.