Before visitors met Dippy, they walked through a wave of 3,000 fish! Norfolk-based artist Mark Reed's unique installation encouraged us all to think about the importance of water through the ages, from the time of dinosaurs right through to the modern day.
Explore the wave in 360 video
All of the fish featured in this unique work of art are for sale. A proportion of the proceeds will benefit future exhibitions work at Norwich Cathedral.
Buy a fish
A closer look at Your Waves Go Over Me
The Bible and modern science differ about many things, but they are in entire agreement that life as we know it emerged from water. Dippy the Diplodocus could not exist without water, and neither can human beings today. As part of Norwich Cathedral’s response to the visit of Dippy, Mark Reed’s sculpture encourages us to reflect on the generative power of the sea and our total dependence on healthy waters for the future of life on Earth.
The wave shimmers with the movement of fish whose shapes represent the evolution of species from the ancient Hadean eon to the present day. The fish was a symbol for Christians from the early days of the faith, in part because they came to new birth through the waters of Baptism.
The title of the sculpture is a quotation from the Psalms (42.9): ‘All thy waves and storms are gone over me.’ The ability of our visitors to immerse themselves in this wave is a reminder of our ambivalent relationship with the untamed waters. We remember holidays by the sea and the excitement of plunging into waves, but also the overwhelming destructive power of water in storm, tsunami, and flood.
The 3,000 fish took eight weeks to create in Mark Reed's Norfolk studio and the 10-metre walk-through wave installation took more than four days to construct in the Cathedral's Hostry.
Watch the making of the wave
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