I Am On My Way To The Sea
ame research & development residency 01
Jo Kennedy : Exploring the River Colne
@ Dai Hall, The Piazza unit 29&30, HD1 2RS

Meet the artist (free) : 15th October 18:00 – 19:00 / 17th October 13:00 – 14:00
tickets booking

(bring your mask, drink and snacks) / limtied to 8 tickets (with one bubble family and friend company) max 16 people only

Exhibition opening times : Tuesday 6th to Saturday 17th October Open every day from 11am to 5.30pm
Except: 11th and 12th October CLOSED ALL DAY

ame is honoured to present Jo’s first solo exhibition here at Dai Hall, I am on my way to the sea. Working with Jo has been nothing but a delight. In the last 5 months, we walked the Colne, discussed, skill-shared and collaborated together. Her work is witty, beautiful and humorous which is all assembled here. I hope this visit will inspire you to (re)-discover the river.

This summer I walked down the River Colne, from its source above Marsden, downstream to Colnebridge, which is as close as I could get to where it joins the larger River Calder. I tried to stay as close to the river as I could, and for much of the time this was possible, especially in the upper stretches. Sometimes there were official footpaths, other times it was a case of scrambling along the bankside, and occasionally I ventured into the water, becoming more inclined to do so as my journey continued.

I Am On my Way To the Sea is a collection of visual and audio pieces inspired by this river journey – the relationship I formed with it, its essence as a moving, living thing, and how I came to understand our wider relationship with it as a society. Painting the river on the wall – which turned into a lovely long wiggle – and adding small notes, pictures and short video clips, struck me as a good way to share my experience, but also as a means for people to see the course of the river and reflect on their own relationship with it, or their own local river if living outside the Colne Valley. I came to understand how we love the river, but also how we have managed its flow through weirs and walls, limited our own access to it, covered it over with concrete, and use it for the disposal of our waste. This understanding formed the inspiration for other exhibition pieces, including: the re-appropriation of discarded items extracted from the river and turned into ‘sound objects’, a collaborative collage, and two audio visual pieces, WASTE – provoked by the sewerage network, and WAUL, created in a large dark under-mill space I ventured into with a musician to experience how the river is denied light and life.

My aim has also been to pepper the exhibition with small nuggets of information about the river, so you will encounter some facts and figures along the way. Ultimately though, my hope is that the exhibition will inspire people to go down to their own river bank, say hello to their river, and have a poke about to see, listen, smell, touch and feel what is going on.