Tidal Apparition
A site-specific installation of salt and glass sculptures on the beach of the Hudson River at Long Dock Park, Beacon, NY
Commissioned for the 2025 Soon Is Now eco and climate art festival
Sunday, October 19, 2025
Tidal Apparition is my first salt and glass intervention in the landscape, expanding the series into site-responsivity. Until now, these works have only been shown indoors, shielded from the elements. They have been especially protected from humidity, which reacts with salt. Yet unusually destructive storms and subsequent floods now shape our lives in precarious ways amidst climate change acceleration, and so it seemed that the sculptures, as bodies, might also face these challenges. For the eco and climate festival Soon Is Now, I made a new group of salt and glass works to be presented on the beach of Long Dock Park, merging with sunlight, site sounds, and embracing vulnerability.
While the public presentation took place over a single day, the project unfolded over a month of site visits leading up to it. I began these site visits with the sculptures on the fall equinox. They extended into October, and I recorded their locations at micro-sites along the same stretch of beach. The documentation traces their shifting relationships with light, foliage, tide, and weather—revealing an extended process of encounter rather than a fixed installation. The public viewing of the installation occurred near the end of October, when the afternoon sunlight was at an acute angle, the tide choppy, and winds were high.
The new works use a palette of ambers, chartreuse, opaline pastels, and transparent topaz that shift with the sunlight’s intensity. These sculptures incorporate glass with high silver content, which heightens their transformations and allows the sculptures to vacillate as dynamic objects with presence and agency. The sculptures become agents of performance—activated by the river-beach environment.
A comprehensive write-up of Tidal Apparition as part of Soon Is Now, by Emma Fiona Jones, is featured in the Albany Times-Union here. An excerpt:
McKinley’s process is grounded in reverence for the land. She emphasizes the importance of being attuned to the site she is working with — to intuit “those moments where things start to feel a little out of alignment, and adjusting, and realizing that we are working with conscious beings when we’re working with nature,” she said. “It’s not just a place; it’s not just a backdrop — it’s a fully alive system and set of beings that are all in relationship. And I want us all to have a great experience working with them.’’ —Emma Fiona Jones
