Convergence: Swim, Walk, Explore

About

The very nature of city walking encourages flexibility in its planning. Therefore the outcome of each walk and the subsequent work produced remain unpredictable. As the rivers flow, sometimes above, and oftentimes beneath the ground, the routes tracked by the artists meander.

The jangled dissonance of the city offers up a cacophony of information, and unveils wilderness at unexpected moments. In an effort to remain true to the path, the artists must rigorously edit down their findings, and only present a selection of the most relevant material.

The intended goal of each expedition is to undertake a swim in a non-municipal, wild body of water and follow each lost river’s path back to the Thames, where ultimately it returns to the sea. And alongside this swim, a walk, to record signs in the landscape, indicating where the water flows beneath the city, through its pipes, sewers and culverts.

The results of these expeditions feed back into the artists’ shared fascination with immersion in landscape, both urban and wild, and the plurality and multiplicity of experience, and inform their individual studio practices, the fruits of which are presented in this exhibition.

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Lucy Devenish’s practice is driven by her explorations of remote landscapes. Her work results from numerous journeys to far-flung coastal areas of the British Isles where she makes wild swims. Each long swim stands as an artistic act of endurance in itself whilst her activity in the studio deals with the mapping and memory of these immersive encounters with the coastline.

Luke M. Walker’s motivation is to capture and record the changing nature of the city. He documents his activities both on the streets and in the studio, through large scale paintings of buildings in transition that are both constructed and undone by the material fluidity of his chosen medium of paint on canvas.