The Thames: The ARTery of London

Contemporary art exhibition in the beautiful location of St Katharine Docks, an artistic exploration of the River Thames on the Thames, curated by Plastic Propaganda.

St Katharine Docks’ Devon House plays host to The Thames: The ARTery of London, An exhibition of contemporary art and sculpture. In partnership with Plastic Propaganda, the exhibition explores and considers the River Thames and its iconographical and symbolic character for a wide range of contemporary visual practice. Its intention is to explore themes, narratives, associations, histories, ecologies and ideas other than those necessarily realised through the literal and direct depiction of the Thames itself.

The River Thames – its length, tidal reach, importance for trade and for the sustainability of the city’s recycled water resources – is a significant part of London’s natural and ecological landscape. Its name, taken from the Sanskrit Tamas, literally means dark, suggests perhaps a partly occluded or elliptical subject resistant to the gaze. But London is and has been typically identified by the snake-like image of the Thames, often used for navigation, whether from earlier, aerial analogue photography or through digitised satellite imagery made ubiquitous by search engines on our PCs. Beyond the immediate course and tidelines of the Thames itself there is a rich and expansive hinterland which indexes a history of continuous settlement from the Romano-British era through to the industrial period of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the post-industrial present.

For artists as diverse as Monet, Derain, Whistler, Roberts, Maitland, Gilman, Greaves and Turner, the natural iconography of the Thames itself and its adjoining architecture provided a creative impetus to their own aesthetic. Similarly, both the Tate Modern and Tate Britain might be conceived as site responsive interventions, the placement of which recognises and continues this history of immersive engagement. This exhibition will explore the meaning of The Thames to contemporary life. We look at how Dickens, Handel, Monet all sought inspiration from the Thames, and contemporary artists such as Cristo wrapping up bridges.

This group exhibition, The Thames: The ARTery of London has been organised and curated as a contemporary contribution to this artistic, social and cultural dynamic.

There will be opportunities for private viewings and meeting the artists for reflection and discussion on Tuesday 6 December and Wednesday 14 December, 6pm. All welcome.

Artists

Among others, the following artists are included: Zena Assi, Ros Barker, Simon Brewster, Steve Burden, Deborah Burnstone, Emily Jane Campbell, Aliceson Carter, Nicholas Cheeseman, Linda Davies, Liz Gorman, Gwil Hughes, Chris Kemp, Ann Kopka, Anne Krinsky, Emma Moody-Smith, Sarah Needham, Gemma Pardo, Jackson Payne, Alexander Pemberton, Marion Stuart, Daniel Raymond, Victoria Smith, Matthew Swift, Beverley Thornley, Pascal Ungerer, Ian Vines, Jane Walker, Anna Walsh, Mei Yuk Wong, Kerry Zacharia. 30 artists have been selected for this exhibition from open submissions.

Plastic Propaganda

Plastic Propaganda is a not for profit collective that provides a supportive and visible platform for both new and established artists, organising and supporting exhibitions both nationally and internationally.