Next Wave is thrilled to unveil TIDAL – a new major commissioning program that takes on the provocation of “art as public space” and responds to the locality, community and cultural context through long-form research, development, iterative outcomes and artist-led interventions into civic infrastructure.

TIDAL acknowledges existing bodies of work, and fosters new collaborations between mid-career practitioners, and between arts and non-arts leaders and institutions. TIDAL prioritises process as outcomes and that occupy a larger footprint over a longer lead time – challenging artists to work in ways that may directly impact, influence and change structures, policies and systems in civic space.

TIDAL 2021-2022 artists extend on their body of work involving waterways and river systems as a starting point. Through this, TIDAL is an invitation to experiment new ideas together, and to experiment the very act of collaboration – towards a strengthening of shared practice and creative relationships.

TIDAL concluded in 2023 with To pitch a tent, to pull it back down at Mission to Seafarers.

Meet our dreamy artists getting into it with us ↘︎

TIDAL ARTISTS
2021 – 2022

Aaron Claringbold, Eliki Reade, Jack Mitchell, and Rebecca McCauley are artists whose work and lives intersect with a shared interest and appreciation for bodies of water, and socially engaged work that confronts and enriches understandings of place. Coming from various positionalities; including Nyungar, kailoma-Fijian, and English/settler descendent ancestry; they have previously worked collaboratively in pairs.

Working across storytelling, photography, sound and live art, they have individually and collaboratively shown work, including with Due West (Resistance Transmission, 2019), Next Wave (Leisuretime I, 2022), Adelaide Contemporary Experimental, CCP, and Dead End Film Festival; sat on committees for SEVENTH and KINGS Artist Run; and been part of programs such as Australia Council’s Future Leaders Program, RMIT’s Photo Futures Lab, the Creators Fund, and Footscray Community Arts’s Emerging Cultural Leaders Program.

TIDAL is supported through the City of Melbourne Arts and Creative Investment Program.