Anne Krinsky: Tropical Thames

About

Tropical Thames also responds to the Garden's dramatic roof structure designed by Foster and Partners and to its plantings, some of which were tropical species that first arrived in Britain through Thames docks. Tropical Thames is  a Canary Wharf Arts Commission and is part of 2017 Totally Thames Festival during September. 

Krinsky lives and works in southeast London – her studio is located on the river, just east of the Thames Barrier. The artist received an Arts Council England Grant for the Arts for Tide Line Thames, her two-year project which explored the river and its architecture between the high and low tide lines.  The artist writes:

"For Tropical Thames, I have worked with hybrid images. I began by projecting my river photos onto the surfaces of my Thames paintings and photographed the results. I  took these new photographs into Photoshop to design the Tropical Thames images, which have been  printed on dibond aluminium panels.  Not the least bit naturalistic, the saturated colour and prismatic light of these images gave me the installation's title.

Designing prints for Tropical Thames involved some time travel – to London's trading past and its potential future. The Roof Garden features varieties of plants that were native to countries visited by ships of the West India Dock Company, which unloaded goods in this location 200 years ago. In the course of researching and making work about the Thames, I also have been thinking about the urgent issue of climate change and what the effects of rising temperatures and sea levels could mean for the tidal river. Tropical Thames might be a beautiful nightmare.­"