RIVERS OF THE WORLD 2016

Thu 1 – Fri 30 Sep 2016 / Free event

City Hall, The Queen's Walk, London, SE1 2AA

Our work with partner schools and the Thames Festival Trust for this year's Rivers of the World Festival is currently on exhibition in London.

London Nautical School: River city buildings in proximity to the River Kelani in Sri Lanka inspired the research for the workshops. The traditional use of Prussian Blue ink for building 'blue prints' were adapted to create three-dimensional objects resembling the river city buildings for the workshops. The pupils created a blue-print paper metropolis in homage to the spectacular architecture, new and old, of Sri Lanka. 

 

Plumstead Manor School: Pupils designed and made paper shadow puppets within a theatrical scene that drew inspiration from photographic portraits of the traditional Sri Lankan rural trades that existed along the river. The shadow shows were then illuminated for filming the puppets in action and the individual sequences edited together to create a short animation film.

 

UCL Academy: Joseph Bazelgette's Victorian garden and urban designs along the Thames embankment were re-interpreted through a series of perspective boxes that created a series of internal and external perspectival scenes using paper collage and paper engineering techniques.

 

Wren Academy: Joseph Bazelgette's Victorian engineering projects for the London sewer system that cleaned the polluted River Thames inspired the research for the workshops. The building masterpieces that celebrated engineering and architecture by expressive decorative ironwork of Victorian pumping stations such as Crossness inspired the techniques of the workshops. Elaborate designs produced in the same period by the craftsman William Morris directed each scene produce by the pupils to create a decorative display of views within an imaginary Victorian pumping station.
  

 

Rivers of The World is an international arts education programme that works in schools across the world and young people aged 12 to 14 to help inspire, educate and connect them to their local river and waterfront.
Working with professional artists, participants explore environmental, social, ecological and cultural aspects of their river and communities. They then create immense artworks inspired by their findings which help share their stories, ideas and hopes. This year’s exhibition can be seen at City Hall and outside along the South Bank, Bankside, National Theatre, More London.
This year’s partner schools come from Addis Ababa, Debre Zayit & Bahir Dar in Ethiopia, Chittagong in Bangladesh, Colombo in Sri Lanka, Hanoi in Vietnam, Kafua in Zambia, Manila in Philippines, London, Lincolnshire, Monmouth, Gloucestershire, Thurrock and Southend-on-Sea in the UK.
Rivers of The World’s lead artist is Shona Watt and our fellow partner artists include Martha Hardy (Ethiopia), Chulu Zenzele (Zambia), Nguyen Hoang Giang (Vietnam), Richard Crooks (Bangladesh), Lalith Senanayake (Sri Lanka) and John M Atienza (Philippines).