The Estuary Festival - REHLM presents 'Merge'
My team, REHLM, and I were tasked, by Metal, with creating a concept, commissioning artists, and producing an artwork.
We were given a very broad brief of creating an artwork or installation relating to the Thames. We decided to go with a historical theme.
We decided to go with:
- Gravesend - the burial ground of Pocahontas, the kidnapped Native American woman brought to England in the 1600s.
- Tilbury Docks - the entry for thousands of Caribbean immigrants last century.
- Southend-on-Sea’s emerging new coastline across as a result of climate change and erosion.
- Wat Tyler Park - the memorial of the Peasants’ Revolt in reaction to poll tax increases of the 1300s which saw them demand economic and social reforms.
We then decided to create our own version of brass rubbings (on a tight budget!) made of porcelain and a bespoke zine, with information about the sites, artists, and bringing all of the individual works together, allowing participants to interact with the rubbing stones, tracing their surfaces, merging them form interconnected image and story. That's how the project name was born: Merge.
My role within this project was 'Artist Liaison' and 'Historical Researcher'.
Finding artists with cultural links and local interests/passions was at the forefront of what we wanted to do. Our 'Pocahontas' artist is a Native American artist living on reserve and our 'Windrush' artist had family who came to England on the ship, so both felt a very personal connection to their respective pieces.
