Three Rivers Wide, 2017
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Cardiff’s rivers mark out the city’s width in water. The rivers are what brought us here, but now our water flows through taps what are they to us? This work considers our relationship with the city’s rivers and their individual identity, as well as the language we use to describe and quantify them. It seeks to understand them both experientially and through information provided by software used to monitor and manage the waterways.
Some of the work in production has moved between matter and digital several times; the aim being to most clearly explore the city’s three watery veins, whilst conversely digital glitches picked up during this un-subjective process were embraced as a gesture to the organic subject that it described. In-flux river data suspended and domesticated on embroidered fabric, half-inch symbols used as guides on OS maps enlarged and elevated, both flotsam and jetsam carried down river and buildings and wildlife reflected in the water that laps the banks indicate how we see the rivers and how they see us. This new body of work has been generated by a period of recent research by boat and working with materials and machinery at FabLab, CSAD. With thanks to Maggie Cullinane and the Cardiff Harbour Authority for their support on this project. Funded by Arts Council Wales. |
