Five students from the School of Music and Fine Arts will be hosting an outdoor exhibition of artwork inspired by the Medway landscape on 18-20 June – and alumni are warmly invited to take part.
Initiated by Nadia Perrotta, Ben Crawford, Clarinda Tse, Angela Ioannidou and Georgina Wilcox, Wetlands was conceived from the students’ wish to explore the beauty of the Medway landscape and re-engage the local community with their rich maritime heritage.
‘Whilst studying at Kent’s Medway campus, I noticed the increasing disconnection between the Medway community and their history ’ explains Nadia, project leader of Wetlands. ‘It was also clear that the University community was out of touch with its surroundings – the majority of students at the Medway campus don’t come from the local community, and know very little about the region. I decided to start a thorough research of the area along with my friend Ben, another Fine Arts student, and we soon discovered the incredible landscape of the Hoo Peninsula. We were captured by the place, the people living there and their stories, and it was this that inspired the project’.
Wetlands, which received support from the Kent Opportunity Fund’s Student Projects Grant Scheme, aims to present an ambitious series of events throughout June which will engage the Medway community with its surroundings through art, re- creating a dialogue between the local Medway people, their maritime history and the wetland landscape. ‘The human connection to the scenery, how emotions are translated into the appearance of a place, and the impact of our project are some of the aspects that I hope to explore’ says Clarinda. ‘I’m really looking forward to seeing how our project will be received in the area’.
One of the events will be an outdoor exhibition on the bank of the River Medway, going from Lower Upnor to Hoo Marina, on 18 to 20 June 2015, for which they are inviting all Kent students and alumni to submit site specific artworks that have been inspired by the Medway landscape. Any media will be accepted and displayed, including installation, sculpture, photography, painting, performance and music, as long as they do not require electricity and do not feature violent or explicit content. Every artist will be responsible for the setup and de-installation of their artwork, which can be left outdoors for the whole event in order to interact with the landscape and the natural processes, or just for a day. The exhibition will be publicised through the group’s media network which is linked to Medway Council and Fuse Festival.
If you would like to take part in the Wetlands exhibition on 18-20 June, please contact the team at wetlandsmedway@gmail.com.
You can also join their Facebook group and follow them on Twitter @wetlands_medway.