When facing this work, there a several round stools around the pillar directly behind you, where you can sit while listening to this track.
Hi I’m Chloe Dewe Mathews. I’m a British artist working with photography and video.
On the wall are a series of six colour photographs from my series ‘Thames Log’. The audio description in this track will focus on the first three. Each image measures 68cm high by 64cm wide, mounted on the curved wall at eye level.
Created over 5 years, The Thames Log Project captures various practices and communities at different points along the Thames, from the source in Gloucestershire all the way to Southend, where the river meets the sea. At the bottom of each photo is a text ‘log’ almost like an entry from a shipping forecast, detailing when and where the image was shot, the weather, tide, sunrise and sunset times and a brief description. The wallpaper behind the photographs is another image from the series, showing a swirl of flower petals being poured into the sea after the ashes of a loved-one, taken at Southend Pier.
The first image on the rightmost side, taken in the upper reaches of the Thames in Oxford, shows a set of three ladies who were part of a pagan circle who I encountered on the riverbank. The women, one in their 30s, one in their 40s and one older, wearing long colourful skirts and tops dance sinuously in a circle, arms raised, in the lush green grass close to the water’s edge. The Thames at this point has many tributaries, one of which we can see in thebackground. The ribbon of water is a brownish green, its rippled surface reflects tall trees on the opposite bank.
The women allowed me to photograph this ritual they created, where they gathered together and brought some blue fabric, a goblet of wine, and a postcard of Hokusai's Great Wave, which they placed in the centre of their circle. The ceremony itself was invented, but it was a very organic and specific way of being together, communing by the river.
The next image on the left shows the Hindu ritual, Ganesh Visarjan in Richmond in 2015. It was taken at sunset in the suburbs of London – a golden light gilds the tops of the trees that border the river on either side and flecks the calm water. In the foreground, two men wearing Bermuda trunks have waded into the water about 10 metres from the shore, holding a statue of the Hindu elephant god Ganesh. Following the young men who carry the statue are two older men dressed in tunic shirts, the hems of which skirt the water while their trousers are soaked to the knee.
Behind them, a crowd of worshippers watch. Most wear orange shirts and hats. They stand on a patch of shingle beach to the left, where the grassy bank dips down to the water’s edge. Two people hold red and gold prayer flags above the crowd.
This immersion of Ganesh Murti into the river marks the end of a ten-day celebration of theelephant god’s birthday. This tradition was celebrated by the British Hindu population for the first time in 2005, with the Thames now considered a sacred river for Hindus in Britain. I was told by the community that it is now seen as unnecessary to travel all the way to India tohonour loved ones in the sacred Ganges. All rivers are connected and flow into one another after all.
The third image in the series is the Anglican Christian blessing of the river on the Epiphany to mark the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan. The photo, taken in 2012, captures the incongruity of the Anglican clergy in their white lacy surplices and gold and green capeswalking across the concrete flagstones of the pavement towards the distinctive glass needle of the Shard and the pink granite buildings near London Bridge station. 3 orange cranes jutt up into a dull overcast sky. To the right of the pavement, cars and a red London bus stream across the bridge.
In this ritual, the congregations from Saint Magnus the Martyr church on the north side of the Thames, and Southwark Cathedral on the south, process towards each other, and meet on London Bridge. Most Londoners would have no idea that this ceremony happens, here onone of the busiest commuter bridges in the city. The congregations come together, say a couple of prayers and then one of the priests throws a large wooden crucifix off the bridgeand into the river below.
I was interested to learn that, rather than being a centuries-old tradition, this event has only been happening here for 10 or 20 years. It was started by one of the local priests who spenttime in Greece. Seeing this Epiphany tradition in the Greek Orthodox Church, he decided tobring it back to the Anglican congregations that he served in London.
The series brings up questions around tradition and customs; some are revived or adaptedtraditions and fabricated customs; things that we assume have happened for centuries, but infact might have been resuscitated or reinvented. For me it’s interesting to question why we need ritual and what form that takes in the modern world.
Spending time along the Thames can feel like a way of looking backwards and connecting with history, as well as looking forwards. So many different religions and cultures from all over the world talk about rivers connecting people in time and space. The river can feel like anyone’s, a common resource - especially when the buildings fall away and you're down on the riverbank.
I suppose in some ways, as I was recording other people's spiritual and secular practices, I was also performing my own kind of ritual, a photographer’s ritual, an artist's ritual. Loggingthese activities was a way of making sense of my own, repeated relationship with the river.
This is the end of Stop 9.