A WEEK ON THE RIVER
BANKSTOWN ARTS CENTRE 25TH SEPTEMBER- 20TH NOVEMBER
During Canterbury-Bankstown's lockdown, the river is as far as we can go. This exhibition reflects on a much loved and complex waterway where, no matter what else is happening, every day, the tide comes in and goes out.
Through the practice of turning attention to the history, geography and visual language of a resilient and mistreated urban river, this exhibition uses a small, personal frame to consider broader issues and ideas. This exhibition shares and extends the body of artwork that Clare Britton made while completing her PhD at Sydney College of the Arts (2017-2020). It considers how Sydney's history is contained within the river that moves through Gadigal, Bidgigal Wangal and Gameygal Lands and aims to make things that are hard to perceive in the present moment (like the whole catchment of a river or the history of a place) more legible. This exhibition is also a celebration of public space, the Canterbury Bankstown Local Government Area and the transformative act of paying attention to a local waterway.
Adapting to our current COVID lockdown orders, the physical exhibition has been reimagined as a series of walks – instructional texts, video and sound.
There might be someone far away you can arrange to walk with. Hopefully, this exhibition is still a physical experience and a chance to share and appreciate a river. Even though we have made it into a concrete canal, polluted its water, and diverted its mouth, it still gives us so much.
A Week on the River includes invited collaborators Aunty Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor, Astrida Neimanis and "The Mullets".
Aunty Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor is a Gadigal/Bidgigal/Darug and Yuin Elder and Traditional descendant of the Sydney “Warrane'' Coastal region. Rhonda studies and is a sessional lecturer at the University of Technology, teaching First Nations Protocols; Climate Justice; Sacredness of Country, water and connection; using story work and decolonising Methodology. Aunty Rhonda is passionate about re-addressing social inequalities and is actively involved with the Climate Justice and Black Lives Matter movements. Rhonda holds a Masters in Aboriginal Studies Intergenerational Trauma and Recovery (2012) and is completing a Masters on respectfully working and studying on Gadigal land and the importance of Gadigal leadership for social movements on Gadigal land.
Astrida Neimanis researches and writes on climate change, water, and embodiment. Alongside her academic research, she collaborates with artists, writers, educators, and other communities for research-creation in both gallery spaces (e.g. Riga Biennale 2020 and Lofoten Biennale 2019), and in public pedagogical contexts. With Jennifer Mae Hamilton, she is co-convenor of the Composting Feminisms reading and research group. She is also a founding member of the weathering collection (weatheringstation.net) and Co-Director of the SEED BOX Environmental Humanities Collaboratory (www.seedbox.se). Following six years at the University of Sydney, since March 2020 she is now Associate Professor in the Faculty of Critical and Creative Studies at the University of British Columbia - Okanagan, on the unceded lands of the Syilx Okanagan.
"The Mullets" formed in 2019 and are based at the River Canoe Club, Tempe. Once a month, they go out on kayaks and canoes to remove rubbish from the Cooks River. Clare has documented their first year of rubbish collection. If you would like to join a local Cooks River environmental group when lockdown is over, consider "The Mullets", "The Mudcrabs", and "the Wolli Creek Preservation Society", all of whom are devoted to the health and wellbeing of the Cooks River.
A RIVER ENDS AS THE OCEAN - AUDIO WALK
The collaborative project The River Ends as the Ocean, Walk the Tide Out saw Aunty Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor, Astrida Neimanis, Clare, and a group of approximately 60 walkers follow the tide out of the river together in January 2021.
Walkers along the Yangtze River echoed this walk and sculptures, video, prints and photos from the walk in Sydney were exhibited at the Powerstation of Art as a part of the Shanghai Biennale of Art, Bodies of Water (named after Astrida Neimanis’ 2014 book).
A WEEK ON THE RIVER
A flake of rust from the barbie at Wanstead reserve, a casuarina seed cone, a Sydney cockle shell, a piece of plastic from the lid of a water bottle. Collected on a series of walks along the river, from Yagoona to Botany Bay, these small silver objects reflect a desire to draw attention to the river and to consider things around us that are easy to overlook.
These sculptures were cast as mnemonic tools for a walk on the river in 2019. Each walker took one home to carry on their travels, put on their bookshelf, forget in their pocket or lose down the back of their couch, only to see it again at some point and remember being a part of a group of people walking along the river.
Developed at Sydney College of the Arts, these sculptures won the 2019 Cooks River Small Sculpture Prize.
WALKS / DRIFTS / DERIEVES
You can do these walks wherever you are, alone or with a friend. If you do these walks, send us a picture and let us know where you are #aweekontheriver #bankstownartscentre
