Waterways

There are these urban stretches of water, calm, dangerous, alien, where you think you’re not allowed to go. I was very surprised to find out that you can just stick a boat of any kind on the Thames.

There are three projects for Waterways so far. Andrea and I worked collaboratively using kayaking as a mode of self-sufficient transport. The first trip we made was part of “Between Dresden and Prague” and then we were invited to be part of “e.n.e.r.g.i.e”, which happened in Brussels. It was a group project with site-specific works to do with energy (see catalogue) and we kayaked on the Willebroeck Canal. Our contribution a series of slides which were then projected in a shop window in a nearby street during the project.

For Waterways-London, Andrea and I made a journey, which would normally take two buses and an hour and a half, continue for a whole week. We stayed with some of the people who occupy the river space, who are here for particular reasons – escaping high property prices, living on the tidal zone, and who have a different relationship with time.

We were sponsored by sea kayak manufacturer Nigel Dennis. We designated a period of time to make the journey, travelling on water, the Thames and the River Lea between Vauxhall and Bow, spending each night with different people who live on or by the waterway. Some of the people we already knew, some we met just before the project, one of them was in the street outside their building… We invited them to be a B&B for us (we paid them for bed and breakfast). We also invited them to do an interview on camera about their choices for this lifestyle. We stayed on a lighter near Tower Bridge , a canal boat at Bow Locks , an empty warehouse in Deptford Creek, a family house by the canal, a boat in a dock under Canary Wharf , and camped in Shadwell. We planned to make a short film including the interviews and footage from the journey.

Date

2003

Collaboration

Andrea Crociani

Media

performances
video (unedited)
photographs

Aknowledgements

Waterways-Brussels – e.n.e.r.g.i.e project, Brussells
Waterways-London – Bow Festival, Space Studios Commission, London

Bow Festival
Sponsored by Nigel Dennis Kayaks (now Sea Kayaking UK), Anglesea, Wales

Waterways-London

Charlotte Tyms
Martin Cottis
Jan Coughlin
Julie Phillips
Lottie Child
Sarah Waring
Charlie Murphy
Andy Jones
VIRAGI
Kim Russel
Space Studios

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