Monday 22nd July 2024
What can the landscapes and communities of the Thames Estuary teach us? And how might this be linked to, and different from, the knowledges provided via other bodies of water: both the rivers that are an estuary’s source and the oceans that are their destination?
Join us for a fascinating ‘Connecting Oceans’ discussion event on Monday 22 July 2024 5-7pm at Loughborough University London, Here East, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London. Book here.
Artists Breakwater (Youngsook Choi and Taey Iohe) will be in conversation with Estuary Festival (Thea Behrman). We hope to share insights into artistic processes along with an exploration of the themes informing the next festival. Estuary 2025, titled ‘Vessels’, looks beyond the boats and ships of the Thames Estuary, to explore how communities, people, flora, fauna and even art events might be thought of as vessels too, carrying stories, memories and ideas.
Over the last year, Breakwater have been artists in residence on Canvey Island working with local communities to develop a new work in response to diverse local people’s ideas and perspectives about the environment, nature and ecology. The project has informed Estuary 2025 which is centred on creating a new model for local cooperation, exploring local community needs, environmental challenges, and international connections.
Breakwater is a London-based Korean diaspora artist duo of Taey Iohe and Youngsook Choi. Their work explores social practice across subject matters around climate justice and migrants’ lived experience, excavating counter-narratives centred around spiritual knowledge and the political resonances of landscape, as well as centring participatory processes involving diverse perspectives and the wider resonances of landscape.
This event is curated and produced by Dr Pandora Syperek, Loughborough University London, and Dr Sarah Wade, University of East Anglia, as part of their long-term collaborative research project Curating the Sea. This event has been generously funded by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art for the Collaborative Project Grant Exhibiting Oceans in the UK Today.
Venue: Room 1.04 Loughborough University London, Here East, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Lesney Ave, London E20 3BS
Image: Canvey Wick Artists Walks produced by Estuary Festival in partnership with Metal and funded by the Essex County Council Arts and Cultural Fund (2023). Photo Breakwater
