Natural response to the pollution of our river

AN artist and curator is launching a project to link creatives with ecology activists by highlighting the beauty of nature.

Vickie Amiralis, from Hambleden, founded the Beautiful Blue, a waterside arts and ecology exhibition, which open today (Friday) at the River & Rowing Museum in Henley and will take in a Chiltern chalk stream and other areas dotted along the River Thames.

Vickie says: “Throughout the next year, permanent and pop-up sculptural installations and events along the Thames Path will be activated.

“The project has been informed by a talk that writer Ben Okri gave, a painting called The Beautiful Blue by Miriam Cahn, the pollution of the River Thames via the dumping of raw sewage and the subsequent protests from local groups such as the Henley Mermaids.

“The idea was spearheaded by Okri’s talk at the Henley Literary Festival last year. He asked the audience, ‘Why aren’t we, the people living in the area, marching in the streets because of the sewage being dumped in the river in Henley?’

“In response to that, I decided that this would be the next project and that I would launch it in Henley with a sense of urgency.

“I love working with community groups and raising awareness of what local people are doing.

“The whole idea is to bring everyone together and raise awareness of what is happening with the river and create a series of events that introduces the public to what’s going on and get them involved in citizen science activities. I did one in Reading last year that focused on our relationship with nature and the event series was super-successful. Everyone got involved and they left the room really inspired to take action and try to do their bit to help our natural environment.

“It’s great because the museum is on board as well as a wide variety of community groups, charities and artists.”

Artists, writers and musicians that will be exhibiting include Okri, Cahn, Andreea Ene, Anna Reading, Angelina Bertozzi, Belinda Millar, Ben Tufnell, Ellie Ramsden, Jane Day, Joke Amusan, Khadija Cecile, Lisa Curtis, McCall Kimball, Maria Konder, Nick Rice, Peter Jones, Rosemary Clunie and Samantha Chang.

Vickie says: “Depending on what funding comes in, we will be adding installations along the river throughout the course of the year with the aim of doing another exhibition at the museum in May next year.

“We’ve got a 35m mural outside Leander Club waiting to be put up which will be celebrating river life and river communities in the area.

“Lisa Curtis is working on the design for the mural and we will be including the digital image in the exhibition. We’ve got a permanent sculpture set to be created and installed outside Upper Thames Rowing Club in collaboration with River Action UK and Earthwatch.

“That is going to be entwining the river testing water kits that Earthwatch do and inviting the public to do the tests and then find out the results.

“It will also act as a recycling depot for the used tests so it’s kind of like a collaborative and interactive sculpture.

“The other one that’s nearly ready to go is an audio installation along the regatta railings. I think it’s about 400m of land that is at the end of Leander Club out to the beginning of Remenham.

“That will be like a compilation album of stories and folklore and music that relates to the River Thames and it will start off as a QR code that you can scan on your phone and then listen to it.

“There will be a few images by Ellie Ramsden, who has photographed the Henley Mermaids, a couple of the other community groups who are doing river testing and people from Earthwatch who are also local.

“The intended audience is anyone and everyone, from families with young children to elderly people.Anyone can be the change that the world needs and it is in many people doing small actions that change will occur rather than one person doing it perfectly.”

Vickie and Diana Barnett, of Greener Henley, have been working with students from Gillotts School, Rupert House School, St Mary’s School, The Henley College and Checkendon and Sonning Common primaries.

Some of the children’s artworks will be included in the exhibition.

Vickie says: “We’ve got all the kids’ artwork in the room, which is really exciting. Some of them are just amazing and the effort that’s been put in is terrific.”

Events to take place museum include the following:

Saturday, May 25 10.10am to 1.35pm — Discovering local action and citizen scientists.

Monday, May 27 10am to 11.30am — Sewage Safari with David Wallace.

Sunday, June 2 10am to noon — Painting the River Thames with Andreea Ene; 1pm to 3pm — Hand-building with clay with Angelina Bertozzi.

Saturday, June 8 10am to noon — Embroidery workshop with Joke Amusan; 2.15pm to 3.10pm — Slow Toad Patrol screening with Henley Toad Patrol; 3.20pm to 4pm — Thames21 presentation.

• The Beautiful Blue exhibition is at the River & Rowing Museum until Sunday, June 16, Thursday to Monday, 10am to 4pm. More events will follow. For more information, email thebeautifulblueproject@
gmail.com, visit rrm.co.uk or see @vickieamiralis on Instagram.