An Unknown Earth

Estuary 2021 will launch with an Opening Weekend (Sat 22 May / Sun 23 May 2021) packed with live streamed discussions and specially commissioned artworks presented online. 

Starting at high tide, early Saturday morning (22 May) and finishing three tide cycles later, at 10pm on Sunday evening, an international line-up of artists, scientists, activists and guests will explore our themes of climate, rebellion and imperial legacy, brought together by a group of four artists/curators who all know the Estuary as their home. 

Jas Dhillon is a multimedia practitioner inspired by the people, script, language, symbolic objects, and poetic experiences, of the love and identity imprinted on her as a first-generation Indian female raised in Kent.  

Elsa James is a British African-Caribbean, conceptual artist and activist living in Southend-on-Sea. Recent projects Forgotten Black Essex (2018) and Black Girl Essex (2019) explore the historical, temporal and spatial dimensions of what it means to be black in Essex. 

James Marriott, writer, artist, activist and naturalist, lives on the Hoo Peninsula, and his forthcoming book Crude Britannia, tells the story of Britain's energy past, present and future with a focus on the Thames Estuary. 

Lu Williams who through Grrrl Zine Fair has been amplifying marginalised voices with a focus on DIY culture, workshops, intersectional feminism and working-class culture since 2015.

Full details of the programme will be announced in April.