Diving into the Voices of the Water Exhibition

Two years ago I joined an exploratory wandering along the river Fleet, with the newly launched Voices of the Water project. We followed the secret river from its source, bubbling up from the ochre clay nursery springs beneath Kenwood, where it nourishes the happy bathers of the ponds just beyond -  before dipping down again and winding, largely concealed, toward the city and the Thames. Along its path it leaves clues of its secret course, touches and feeds different living systems, plants and plane trees; the living underland and rebellious life that lifts and connects above it.

At one point a boy called Jamie, from a nearby primary school, informs us that the remains of a Viking vessel was unearthed by archeologists along its banks. Jaws dropped, our imaginations peeled back through time, imagining the layers of stories and lives, the aeons and incarnations this river has sprung at different points in time.

Bathers on the river Fleet at Kings Cross, 19th Century

These layers of stories, some hidden, yet always entangling together eventually, stretch forward, as well as backwards in time. They also connect outwards, as wider and wider spheres, into other bodies of water - part of one interchanging and interconnected substance relating to all life on the planet, and relating to all of our lives and stories.

Water as substance and lifesource lends itself almost effortlessly to metaphor and creation. So primaeval and connected are we to it as sustenance, its deeply felt beauty, and to the flow and change we see in ourselves. Any description of water - its properties or behaviours - feels poetic almost by default when voiced.

In the two years the Voices of the Water project has sailed, these myriad metaphors and connections have taken shape with different strands, captured and woven - sometimes literally - into multi-generational expressions by those who participate in GGs programmes. These watery creations were collected and celebrated over the last weeks atop the beautiful and buoyant lightbox that is the Floating Garden.

Voices of Water Floating Exhibition

On display was a synesthesia of sound-art, somatic performance, photography, sculpture and pottery (capturing sound waves on ceramic), blue-green algae portraits, manuscripts, and so much more - rippling their watery creativity onto the canal. 

One of these was a video installation called Water Wash my Tired Feet, co-created by the young Fellows, myself, and Silvia - GGs senior youth programme coordinator. In it we see and hear the cycle of inspiration and reflection as poetry, music and art, along this stretch of Regent’s canal. It also pools insights and ideas that we have absorbed in subtle ways over the course of the two-year project.

The piece is part of a larger series of four co-created short films, commissioned by Global Generation, exploring nearby watery paths with locals, through personal histories and reflections. In them we layer different bodies of water from people's backgrounds and past on top of each other as poetry, storytelling, photography and digital art. A wonderful surprise was the way inspiration from sights, experiences, and conversation along our walks were sometimes captured on video and mic, and then spoken out as reflection by participants, like a zooming out of perspective. The whole project has been hugely nourishing to be a part of, both as participant, and later as a facilitator, encouraging others to express themselves by the water. 

They are curated here, alongside the other watery creations, through this online vessel exploring the range of community artworks from Voices of Water. So please take some time to dive in.

WATER WASH MY TIRED FEET

Daisy Rocks Camden

Maria along the ponds

Sherry on the Thames

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Notes from the Garden