Creating a Series of Artworks: River Droplet

River Droplet installation. CREDIT: Amanda Moore

‘River Droplet’ is a temporary installation in Frampton, Dorset, that shines a light on the unique character of chalk streams in Dorset, due to open for the month of September 2024. This project follows on from the installation I completed at Canute's Palace, Southampton, in 2018. This involved hanging 1,000 bottles of water from the Solent in a wave formation from a scaffold structure. The installation referenced narratives around Canute who was said to have demonstrated that no man can hold back the tide.

The bottles displayed the clay sediment found in the Solent and interestingly, brought water into the town in an area which would have belonged to the sea, this area of the Old Town being reclaimed land. The installation was activated by a series of events and performances as it allowed full use of the ground floor of the palace below and many events related to water and seafaring.

River Droplet has has been commissioned by Dorset National Landscape as the first installation for the 'Sitting Spaces' project. Sitting Spaces aims to encourage a wider range of people to visit the countryside by creating temporary structures to sit and enjoy the special qualities of the area. Sitting Spaces supports the new Dorset Food Trail, which highlights the food heritage of the Frome Valley between Maiden Newton and Dorchester.

The brief was to design a sitting space which highlights local geological properties of an area and relate them to food production. This encouraged me to think about the project I did in Southampton as part of a possible series, rather than a one-off. This is a new way of working for me and shows that you can often do something once, and then disregard its potential value in a different context.

This installation consists of 600 bottles of water taken from the adjacent River Frome. The chalky bed of the river can be seen through the sediment in each of the bottles. Chalk streams are perfect for the production of watercress which is grown locally and shipped around the UK and across the world. It is also giving me an opportunity to work with an artist I've wanted to work with for a while, Lorna Rees of Gobbledegook Theatre, https://www.gobbledegooktheatre.com/. Lorna is bringing the installation to life with events and recordings that explore the story of watercress production and what makes chalk streams so special. She is crafting songs based on folk songs about watercress, recording audio from people including scientists and growers, and we are holding 'glow-mings' where we celebrate sunset and the illumination of the installation. Audio can be played via QR codes online.

Pretty much every town and city in the UK has been created around a river and each river tells a different story. This model of showcasing the water, slowing creating a physical installation which the local community grow interest in, and activating it by telling stories, is proving to to form an interesting and valuable model for outdoor art.

https://dorset-nl.org.uk/project/sitting-spaces/

Canute's Palace, Southampton. CREDIT: Amanda Moore