These current works are images derived from an earlier period. They evoke thoughts and recollections of works executed on the New South Wales coast at Durras between 1975 and 1981. The low sand dunes of the beach protect the inland Durras Lake which is connected to the relentless surf action of the Tasman Sea.

“Sand Memories”, the most extensive work at Durras was developed between 1975 and 1979. It explored the changing nature of the dunes; photographing them and later burying the photographs within the dunes. The “Sand Memories” performance on Durras Beach resulted in my burial inside the dunes for a short period of time. While in New York in 1977, the performance was extended by gluing photographs of the same dunes onto an intersection at Broome Street and West Broadway where they were systematically destroyed by the heavy traffic. Some months later, in January 1978, the work was performed in its entirety at the Pratt Graphic Center, New York.

In a later performance on Durras Beach, "Against the Tide", I was strapped to a large X structure and immersed in a fibreglass sleeve located between the low and high tide limits.

The artist can sometimes find themselves in a dual situation where they are both onlooker and responding to the situation they are observing.

Michael Haerdter (introductory essay, "Berliner Notizen", Berlin, December 1983) notes; "…. vulnerable to the power of the tide, Arthur Wicks is witness and actor at the same time. He is witness and victim who demonstrates to both himself and to us the frailty of being human …".

Regardless of whether we are present to record or witness the event or not, the entropy of the ocean in the meantime is relentlessly dissipating its energy.

Nearly fifty years later it seems appropriate to reflect on the Durras environment and its influence on my art work by using a medium which is liquid, fragile, versatile and immediate: Watercolour.

Arthur Wicks

July 2026