Tales Along The Thames

Drift

Flooding in Berkshire in recent years has left a big question mark over how to control any future flooding of the Thames and other local rivers.

It's also one of the inspirations behind a multi-sensory art installation along the Thames at the Henley River & Rowing museum.

Called Drift, artists Tiffany Black and Leora Brook ( brook & black) have combined symbolic sculpture and plaster casts with digital images, props and an unnerving soundtrack to evoke questions and emotions surrounding human helplessness when faced with this untethered force of nature.

Tiffany says: "As artists we're delighted to make a response to the river and the issues surrounding the River Thames - particularly flooding and a response to those particular elements within flooding that can cause concern and make people think about our future."

Tiffany Black and Leora Brook aka brook & black

Leora says: "The centre-piece of the exhibition is a crazy jumble of domestic doors that are actually arranged in the same compositional structure as a very famous painting of a shipwreck."

The painting, called The Raft of the Medusa by 19th century painter Gericault, depicts an infamous shipwreck where over 100 lives were lost in a fight for survival.

Leora says: "There is a message implicit in the exhibition because the people on the shipwreck, the raft of survivors, failed to survive because of the inaction of authorities in charge."

She adds: "Although it's not obviously stated there is a kind of 'we can't wait for the authorities to act'".

This is the first exhibition of its kind to address issues of flooding and climate change using multi-sensory art. As well as the organised chaos of the doors sculpture, and an eerie triptych of Medusa-like death masks, visitors hear a dramatic soundtrack that suddenly crashes around your ears.

Leora says: "There is a high level of formal visual beauty to the piece however the soundtrack starts to suggest the unease that maybe we should all feel. There are some very beautiful sounds but then some quite threatening and surprising sounds interrupt."

Medusa-like heads

Outside crooked metallic door frames continues on the theme of askewed domestic life. Look beyond the door and you'll see the River Thames benignly flowing by.

In contrast, back inside sandbags lining the walls are poignant reminders of the river's vicious power.

Tiffany says: "For us it's about evoking a mood, it's about people coming in and experiencing a multi-sensory dreamscape."

Paul Mainds, Chief Executive and Trustee at the museum says:  "brook & black’s commission is an exciting opportunity for the museum as we are increasingly involved in environmental issues, particularly flooding."

Michael Archer - art critic, curator, writer and Head of Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at the University of Oxford, will give a lecture on installation art in conversation with artists brook & black on Thursday 7 May, 2009.