Sea Change at the Royal Docks
11-29 May 2023 – Royal Docks & Thames Barrier Park, London E16
New commissions curated by Invisible Dust: Simon Faithfull, Melanie Manchot, Dana Olarescu and Raqs Media Collective
Commissioned by The Royal Docks Team in collaboration with UCL (University College London)
Sea Change is a three-week event bringing together international artists with leading UCL academics, inspired by research into sustainable responses to the climate emergency. Four new commissions will be exhibited by Simon Faithfull, Melanie Manchot, Dana Olărescu and Raqs Media Collective. The season also draws from the fascinating historical context of the Royal Docks.
‘Sea Change’ is a term used for a substantial shift in situation or perspective and was first used in Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’, a play with a background, like the Royal Docks, of sea voyages, developing globalisation and colonialism. Sea Change points to the future, to the need for changing practices, but also alludes to a pivot point of the climate crisis in the dock’s history – the move from sail to steam power. This development led to an enormous expansion in London’s trade and exchange of goods and peoples, which enabled modern day industrialisation, globalisation and with it the problems of climate change.
Linking future-facing science and research into sustainable solutions to climate change, biodiversity loss, energy, and urban futures, to the specific histories of the Docks site, this season of artists’ commissions highlights the need for a ‘sea change’ in order to face the future sustainably.
Invisible Dust, the Artistic Directors, have worked with the artists and UCL academics to identify areas for the artists to explore including the empire and trade, energy, nature and labour. The artists have been in dialogue with the sustainability research of UCL academics, including Earth System Science, People and Nature Lab, Energy Institute, The Institute for Sustainable Resources and The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. They have brought this research together with local history and communities to set the season firmly in the local context.
Sea Change is part of a significant new programme of artworks and events highlighting sustainability in the light of the climate crisis, which will be presented at the Royal Docks as part of their new summer season At The Docks.
OPENING TIMES: 10-6 every day
Getting there:
For Royal Victoria Dock (venue for Raqs Media Collective’s work) take either the Elizabeth line to custom house or DLR to Royal Victoria and the work is near to City Hall at the water’s edge.
It’s an approx 20 min walk to Thames Barrier park (listen to Social Broadcasts’s audio postcards as you walk) See map for route here: https://royaldocks.london/media/SeaChangeLeaflet1.pdf
For Thames Barrier Park E16 2HP nearest transport Pontoon Dock DLR or Uber Boats by Clipper to Royal Wharf Pier. Bike racks at Thames Barrier Park.
Exact location is : What3Words location here
Access:
Thames Barrier Park is wheelchair accessible – when arriving at Pontoon Dock DLR please use the ramped entrance between Millet Place and Poppy Apartments (What3Words location here). There is picnic table style seating outside and a bench in Melanie Manchot’s screening space.
Raqs Media Collective: The Waves Are Rising
‘The Waves Are Rising’ by Raqs Media Collective will feature an animated augmented reality (AR) wave on a large scale LED screen, superimposed upon live video feed video of the still waters of The Royal Docks, filling the vista of the usually calm waterscape with an animated surging wave as well as detritus and data from the high seas.
As fewer people travel by ship now, we are now more divorced from understanding its turbulence and power, which is exacerbated by climate change. The augmented reality wave will reference this untamed nature of the deep sea, the rising seas due to global warming, the waves of capital, trade and immigration brought to the Royal Docks during its history as well as wave patterns in print and fabrics and the wave in art history and popular culture (from Hokusai’s famous ‘Great Wave’ print, to its reproduction as an apple emoji).
Listen to Social Broadcast’s brilliant audio postcard exploring this commission, talking with the artists, researchers and collaborators below:
Simon Faithfull: Biotopes
Biotopes is a series of interventions and proposals that visualise our entwined-ness with the rest of ‘nature’; by poetically turning the artist Simon Faithfull‘s own body into a series of habitats for other species. ‘Biotopes’ will consist of 3D-prints of the artist’s head that are then adapted to be vessels or niches for other species to reside within, with proposals for other habitats presented as posters.
Listen to Social Broadcast’s brilliant audio postcard exploring this commission, talking with the artist, researchers and collaborators below:
Melanie Manchot: Flotilla
Melanie Manchot’s new work takes inspiration from the historic women’s protests around the Royal Docks, from the Suffragettes to the Dagenham Ford strikes, and the inequalities with regards to women working on boats.
A cross-generational group of female residents were filmed on a ‘flotilla’ of boats and ships on the night-time waters of the Royal Docks. Standing at the bow, the protagonists become radiantly illuminated by pools of light while the flotilla itself is seen like a procession, gliding through the waters towards the City of London lit up in the distance.
Listen to Social Broadcast’s brilliant audio postcard exploring this commission, talking with the artist, researchers and collaborators below:
Dana Olărescu: Power In
To reflect on the root causes of energy-access inequality, Dana Olărescu will create a temporary outdoor installation in the Thames Barrier Park, visible to passers-by as well as to those travelling on the DLR through Pontoon Dock station.
Made up of windsocks – simple indicators of wind direction and strength – the installation will use low technology to display fragments of workshop conversations, collective energy-access concerns, and academic research.
Listen to Social Broadcast’s brilliant audio postcard exploring this commission, talking with the artist, researchers and collaborators below:
FORECAST
On Friday 19th May at City Hall as part of the Sea Change season, Invisible Dust will present Forecast 2023. This international hybrid symposium will feature writers, artists, scientists and cultural commentators to explore the nature of the stories we tell and how they help shape our planet’s future, drawing from the Sea Change location and curatorial themes. Some of the early names confirmed include artists Gavin Turk, Melanie Manchot, Julie Freeman, Jeremy Deller, Raqs Media Collective, author Amy Jeffs, and Wangechi Ngugi and Daniel Muchina from Art & Science Films Afrika (ASFA), with more to be announced.