FPG Sounds: RikTheMost, ’Time After Tide’

Focal Point Gallery is pleased to announce the sixth commission as part of ‘FPG Sounds’, an online project to support the development of new sound works by artists from or based in Southend-on-Sea.

For this commission, Southend-born, spoken word artist, performer and producer, RikTheMost, has created a new, long-form poem, entitled 'Time After Tide', as part of a larger body of work that they are in the process of compiling, called “Heterophobia” – which focuses on the many ways fear of difference (or change) manifests, and how it affects us and our choices.

'Time After Tide' takes unlikely inspiration from Rik’s childhood ‘playground’: the Thames estuary mudflats, and shares some of the natural beauty and nostalgic joy to be found in this lesser thought of, and perhaps misunderstood, aspect of the seaside. Rik uses the mudflats, and surrounding area, as an extended metaphor to explore and compare the youthful nonchalance towards play and risk-taking found in children, with the seemingly inevitable shifts that can occur as people age, when faced with challenges and expectations that teach caution.

"Set to the ebb and flow of a minimalist soundscape of field recordings from Southend, and some further afield, there is a definite existential and introspective lean to the piece, but with a sincere encouragement for empathy and understanding.  It unpicks the nuance of growth and the complex marriage of choices we find ourselves needing to make along the way, balancing: stasis, safety, discomfort and change, as well as if we can possibly find hope under the pressure of an ever-approaching tide!" RiktheMost.

Please find an audio transcript of 'Time After Tide' here.

A list of acknowledgements for this project can also be found here. 

About the artist: 

RikTheMost (they/ them) is a vegan, queer, non-binary, polyamorous spoken word artist, who spends most of their spare time making homophobes feel uncomfortable. Born and raised in Southend, Essex, they have been commissioned by the BBC; toured internationally as a poet; represented Australia at the American National Team Slam Championships; ranked 2nd three times at the New Zealand Individual Slam Finals, been voted in as New Zealand Poetry Society’s Vice President and are currently residing and working in NZ on the prestigious “Exceptional Talent In The Arts Visa” where they run the biweekly online spoken word event and community “Your Place Events”.

Rik is also a fully qualified teacher and has facilitated workshops for individuals, organisations, and writers’ groups alike, as well as youth groups and school students from primary age all the way up to university – including La Trobe University in Australia, Plymouth University in the UK and Massey University in New Zealand.

As an artist constantly seeking understanding, RikTheMost is intrigued by the psychology of choice, emotion, motivation, interaction and reaction and how fear and the overcoming of it direct us. Their poetry is philosophical, challenging, funny (at times), emotional (at others) and, as an ex-breakdancer and keen juggler, (always) embellished with interesting rhythms and complex word play!

https://www.fpg.org.uk/exhibition/time-after-tide/