Worcester Open (Climate Change Edition 2023)
Opening event :Thursday 12th January 2023 / 5 - 7pm Exhibition dates : 12th January until 17th February 2023 Opening times : Wednesday - Friday 12.30 - 5pm (please ring the bell)
THE ART HOUSE, Castle Street, Worcester WR1 3HN
please come and show your support for these local and global issues
Ankle Deep
original artwork by Jonathan Oakes
mixed media on paper & photo collage
The multi photograph collage adds texture; the soft hues are detailed by possible descriptive lines applied by ballpoint pen and coloured pencil. Almost evidence of a light flooding.
We are wading through our house again, just like we did last year and the year before. Ankle deep we paddle in the dark, dirty water. The dank ruined smell rises into our nostrils. About ten years ago now there was a once in a lifetime flooding event, when it seemed that everything was under the water. Since then we are now seemingly and seasonally accustomed to the waters menace. The annual threat rises along with the water levels. We can no longer live like this; we can no longer live here. The place seems so idyllic when the brown water does not cover the streets. The debris of branches, rubbish and peoples once belongings, litter the urban beaches and the dry corners of the town.
Insurance claims, climb once again for plaster work, electrical, floorboards, pumping and carpet. The water mocking us as some of the claims have only just come through. Thoughts turn to living in boats, the mind floats back to the times of busy canals. The waterways were kept cleaner then, not so overgrown and congested with silt, run-off was flowed downstream. Land and fields helped to sponge it, now the concrete only blocks. The slower pace of boat life would have to be adapted, because there is nowhere left to park the car. We are having trouble seeing the river’s boundaries when the floods are in full swing. Fields and roads and low lying houses are vanishing from view. Flood barriers shift the problem letting the silted water travel further on. The cause is the thing that needs addressing.
