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Event — Part of: Events

Art
Free
Public Programme

Water Divinations: Collective Enquiry

When
18 September 2024
9am - 6pm

Where
Brent Reservoir, Wembley Sailing Club, Welsh Harp Sailing Club

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Price
Free

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Part of a series of “divinations” that will inform the creation of the Brent Biennial 2025. A one-day programme structured around water, featuring workshops and collective imagining.

The name Brent is Old English, from Celtic words meaning ‘holy one’ or ‘sacred waters’. Water is an essential life force. Human bodies are made up 70% of water. Most of the planet is water. Water represents fluidity, flow and connectivity. Water inspires thinking about adaptability and flexibility, its softness speaks of persistence and power.

(Re)building requires the four elements. Earth, water, fire and air form the basis of many ancient philosophical systems; they are the essential ingredients in the alchemical processes of creation and transformation. Each element symbolises and energises a deeper understanding of different facets of existence. When combined, these essential elements have the potential to reconfigure our understanding of structures and knowledge, and help us to remake our world.

Thank you to the Wembley Sailing Club, Welsh Harp Sailing Association and Welsh Harp Open Space who are generously hosting the first of our collective enquiries.

The Welsh Harp Sailing Association includes the Wembley Sailing Club, Sea Cadets, Welsh Harp Sailing Club and the Phoenix Canoe and Outdoor Club, which are located around the Brent Reservoir, alongside the Welsh Harp Open Space.

The Brent Reservoir and Open Space is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, with the open water and associated habitats supporting an unusually large selection of wetland birds and plants for an inner city reservoir.

9.00am Living Waters – Tom Dalrymple

An introduction to living and working on the water.
There is an option to observe or participate in the sailing taster session.
(Limited spaces/120 min)

11.00am Coffee/Teas

11.15am Flowing Streams: Co-develop a water-themed board game – Harun Morrison

You begin as a raindrop in a cloud. Flowing Streams is a water-themed board game in-progress. You are invited to co-develop the rule system and game play for using a board and set of icons as prompts. Participants are encouraged to informally create and test new rules and objectives as a way of thinking about the cultural, spiritual, industrial and meteorological roles of waters. (Suitable for 12+ 120min)

1.15pm Lunch

2.15pm Dowsing for Recurring Ghosts – Youngsook Choi

Youngsook Choi will facilitate the collective enquiry ‘Dowsing for Recurring Ghosts’, held in and around the Brent Reservoir. It experiments with dowsing as the metaphor for engaging the ecological loss and trauma induced by industrialisation and urban development and discovering intuitive methods of communal healing. Dowsing is a method of divination often adopted to locate groundwater, minerals and even ghosts by detecting earthly vibrations. Regardless of long-lasting controversy and suspicion around its scientific efficacy and spiritual power, this gathering amplifies the interconnectedness of all beings through the frequencies of water originating from the vast magnetic fields and, by collectively devising imaginary dowsing apparatus, speculates how the interspecies communities in Brent Reservoir receive and reciprocate with the water as a way of coming together. (120min)

4.15pm Afternoon Tea & Coffee

4.30pm Clear Water (Moving) – Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin
(90 min)

6.00pm END

Water Divinations is one of four collective enquiries which will inform the shape of our biennial in 2025. They’re all open and free to attend for Brent locals and anyone who feels drawn to the topics being explored. Explore the other sessions below.

About the artists

Tom Dalrymple

Tom is an actor and creative from North London. He trained in acting at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and LAMDA from 2018 – 2022, and is involved in promoting positive growth and learning through arts and sport. As well as being Centre Principal at Wembley Sailing Club, Tom is co-founder of Floating Shed, a theatre company creating original work that confronts issues around human rights and inequality. They are currently working on an Israeli-Palestinian co-creation looking at the effects of conscription and political conflict on those living among it. Tom is also part of a number of organisations including Theatre Inspiring Change which seeks empower and educate people through art.

Youngsook Choi

Youngsook Choi is an artist/researcher with a PhD in human geography. Under the
umbrella theme of political spirituality, her performances and multi-faceted installations explore intimate aesthetics of solidarity building and collective healing. Grief has been the focus of Youngsook’s recent practice, posing collective grief as the process of socio-political autopsy upon certain types of death and environmental destruction. Youngsook’s work has been supported and presented by institutions including Arts Catalyst, Asia-Art-Activism, Barbican Centre, Camden Arts Centre. Liverpool Biennial 2021 and many more.

Harun Morrison

Harun Morrison is an artist and writer based in London, former associate artist at Greenpeace on the project Bad Taste. This summer he is in a two person show at Somerset House Studios project space G31 alongside Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom. His forthcoming novel, The Escape Artist will be published by Book Works. Recent group exhibitions include Sonic Acts 2024: The Spell of The Sensuous, Amsterdam, Chronic Hunger / Chronic Desire in Timișoara, Romania and BALATORIUM Disturbed Waters, in Veszprém, Hungary as part of the European Capital of Culture 2023 programme and Storm Warning: What does climate change mean for coastal communities? at Focal Point / Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, UK. Recent solo exhibitions include, Dolphin Head Mountain at the Horniman Museum, London (2022 -23), Mark The Spark at Nieuwe Vide in Haarlem, Netherlands (2022) and Experiments with Everyday Objects, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, (2021). Harun is currently co-developing community gardens in Merseyside for Bootle Library and Mind Sheffield, a mental health support service, as part of the Arts Catalyst research project, Emergent Ecologies. @harunishere www.harunmorrison.net

Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin

Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin is an artist who practices in trust and hope. She works eco-consciously with objects, language, prints and nuanced interactions to craft a contemporary philosophy inspired by her spirituality, British-Bajan heritage and ceremonies of solace. 

Recent presentations of her work include exhibitions and workshops at Sherbet Green, London (2024); Cell Project Space, London (2024); Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff (2024); Neven Gallery, London (2024); Metroland Cultures, London (2023); Nottingham Contemporary (2023); Somerset House, London (2022); and South London Gallery (2020). She is an Associate Lecturer at Chelsea College of Arts.

Image: courtesy of the artist Youngsook Choi

Divinations: a collective enquiry