Watercourse Way is an Arts Council England funded Salt Road project, inviting artists and workshop participants to evoke and embody watery bodies; the bottom of the sea, the banks of a river, seaweed, algae, fish, insects, birds, polluted or stagnant water, rising sea levels, oil spills, ice, glaciers, lakes, ponds, streams, bogs, canals, glaciers, islands, or human and animal bodies, which are 60% water. Click here for the project blog
The Watercourse Way is a visual artist commission, socially engaged workshop and exhibition program.
We worked with 750 people in 35 co-production workshops, we worked with communities in 9 places across the urban and rural west midlands in Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Staffordshire and Birmingham. Our 6 commissioned artists created 9 new artist commissions.
Nature’s New Journey was a Watercourse Way animation written and drawn by Haider, Areebah, Husna, Fahad, Zaki, Jamaal and Amann with Zafroon Bibi. Based on the WASH project’s Nature’s New Journey zine created by New Leaf & Thornton School. A Salt Road co-production editing Pearl Jackson-Payen, animation Jaime Jackson, audio Mikey Greenwood.
Made possible thanks to public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England
Watercourse Way is a Salt Road artist-led program that responds to the climate and ecological crisis, creatively exploring water and its edges. Here, water is related to as an open and rippling subject matter, encompassing global bodies of water (rivers, oceans, canals, lakes, ponds, glaciers, waterfalls, streams), human and animal activities in water (bathing, drinking, swimming, washing, paddling, floating, sinking), water as a symbol for the poetic or deep mind (conscious, unconscious, subconscious), water as an opportunity for total submergence, for opening, closing, cooling, heating, freezing, melting, rippling, dripping, thundering, roaring, evaporating, threading, shifting, flowing, or stagnating…
The artistic approach is intrinsically watery; the artist embodying the wisdom of water and flow as a state of being. Taking the idea that we are nature, this project dwells within vast fields of reference; combining climate science and myth; exploring the co-production of knowledge and the fluid intersections of art and science. Click here for the project blog
Salt Road commissioned 6 artists to make 9 commissioned artworks for the Watercourse Way:
- Sally Payen water colour paintings
- Jaime Jackson oil paintings
- Digital art commission Jaime Jackson machine learning moving image (digital co-production)
- Early stage career artist Pearl Colette – blog and writing.
- Pearl Colette – drawing and embroidery art
- Pearl Colette – social engaged artist.
- Stephen Whitehead, socially engaged artist.
- Chris Plant digital art moving image commission.
- Mikey Greenwood, sound artist.
The project involved 9 venues in co-production workshops
Poem by Pearl Colette
I dig a hole and it fills up with water.
(All the flowers are open and filled with water. The site of the breakage leaks red.)
At dawn, an object washes to shore.
(A roll of paper, tied with string.)
We exhibited artwork in eight venues over 125 days. We ran 35 workshops with 750 socially deprived people across the west midlands.
In addition we held 10 week residency next to the River Wye in Herefordshire for artists Jaime Jackson and Sally Claire Payen, at New Inn Brilley.
Feedback for film from 7 participants who co-created the artwork for the project, on seeing the completed film for the first time, ages 10 -11, plus the head teacher Mrs Grace (young people’s words unless stated):
‘I genuinely don’t know what to say. I feel quite emotional actually. It’s absolutely amazing.
I’m absolutely blown away. That is amazing. Mrs Grace (the head teacher).‘I’ve got tears in my eyes because I’m so proud of you. Oh gosh, I could never do anything like that in a million years. Look what you’ve done.’
We’re grateful for the opportunity as well, so thanks so much. It was really fun for us as well. Yeah, we had fun. Absolutely amazing. Yeah, we need to show that to everybody. Are we allowed to put it on the website even at some point? We should be able to do that.’
