This 9 month residency explores the relationship between people and the Thames Estuary through the idea of tidal exchange - what the estuary gives us, and what it takes away.
The estuary is a place of constant movement and change. It provides food, work, shelter, beauty, recreation and encounters with wildlife, while also presenting uncertainty, danger and loss. Objects disappear into its waters, landscapes shift with the tide, habitats change, and memories become attached to particular places. For those who live and work alongside the estuary, these experiences create complex and deeply personal relationships with the water.
Hannah’s project brings together stories from people who know and experience the estuary in different ways, exploring themes of connection, exchange, memory, work, wildlife, loss, change and belonging. These stories will meet the perspectives of local communities who may have less direct experience of the estuary, creating opportunities to discover and respond to the landscape through creativity, making and shared experiences.
The project will culminate in a new immersive installation, bringing together community voices and creative responses with light, sound, projection, natural materials and tactile elements. Rather than simply documenting the estuary, the work will create a space where its stories can be experienced — allowing audiences to encounter the landscape through the memories, observations and imaginations of the people connected to it.
At its heart, Tidal Exchange is about recognising the estuary as more than a geographical or ecological landscape. It is a place of relationships: between people and nature, past and future, land and water, giving and taking.
About the Residency
Tidal Exchange is part of Transforming the Thames, a large-scale partnership led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) working to restore and reconnect the habitats of the Greater Thames Estuary, creating a healthier, more resilient coastal wetland for both wildlife and local communities. The partnership brings together conservation organisations, researchers, local authorities, landowners and other organisations to deliver restoration at a seascape scale, with an ambition to restore over 320 hectares of coastal habitat during its first five years.
The project is supported by the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme (ELSP), managed by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative in partnership with Arcadia. ELSP supports ambitious landscape and seascape restoration across Europe, including creative and cultural approaches that explore people’s connections to places and nature and inspire local involvement in restoration.
Through the residency, Tidal Exchange forms part of this wider effort to reconnect people with the Thames Estuary, exploring the relationships, stories and experiences that connect communities to a landscape undergoing ecological recovery and change.
