CREEKERY at Deptford X 2010

Sue Lawes © 2010
Ceramic in Deptford Creek at Ha’Penny Hatch, SE8 
Photo: Charles Shearer

Deptford X 2010   24 September – 3 October

“The Thames...can be considered to be a museum, containing a collection of material finding its way into the river, where it is sorted and classified according to the river’s own internal physical dynamics, those of transport and deposition, tide, current and flow.” 

CREEKERY is visable from Ha’Penny Hatch footbridge at lowtide between the following approximate times:

Friday 24 September:  05.00 – 13.00 & 17.30 – dark
Saturday 25 September:  05.45 – 13.45 & 18.00 – dark
Sunday 26 September:  06.15 – 14.15 & 18.30 – dark
Monday 27 September:  06.45 – 14.45    
Tuesday 28 September:  07.00 – 15.00    
Wednesday 29 September:  07.30 – 15.30    
Thursday 30 September:  08.00 – 16.00    
Friday 1 October:  08.45 – 16.45    
Saturday 2 October:  09.45 – 17.00    
Sunday 3 October:  11.30 – 19.30

What are all those crocks doing in the Creek?

An English interpretation of Chinese handpainted porcelain decoration developed in 1790 at the start of the Industrial Revolution...a design that traversed the world with the English colonialists and is still in production today...The Creek – home to Deptford’s industrial past, and a habitat for invasive species like the Chinese mitten crab (brought back in ships’ ballast from the far east) and the Buddleia (from the mountains of China)...The viewer surveys the spectacle from an elevated position, echoing the unusual perspective in the pattern...

The Ravensbourne, a wild river flowing into The Thames, full of flotsam and jetsam…a predominance of broken decorated blue and white ceramic washed up on the Thames foreshore, abundant due to its popularity at a time when everyone discarded their rubbish into the river...This new Willow might eventually become battered fragments to be discovered by future beachcombers...

Like the invasive species in the Creek, the artist’s intervention is a form of colonisation. The movement of the tides reflects the economic ebb and flow of trade as Europe returns to China for cheaper manufacturing, as they did with the first porcelain plate. And like China herself, much is hidden, to occasionally surface.

Technical assistance: Emma Redstone
Access and support: Creekside Education Trust
Press photos: Charles Shearer www.deptfordvisions.com

Extract from Disjecta Reliquiae: The Tate Thames Dig by Robert Williams writing about artist Mark Dion’s Tate Thames Dig in Archaeology, pp75-76 (Black Dog Publishing)

www.suelawes.co.uk

CREEKSIDE WALK
Sunday 3 October at 2pm
This walk is part of a series organised by Creekside Education Trust.
Meet at Creekside Centre, 11 Creekside SE8 4SA. Participants need to be reasonably fit since you will be walking on the bed of a wild river. Waders, waterproofs and walking sticks are provided.
Adults: £10, Children & concessions £8.50,
Family ticket (2 adults, 2 children) £28
Booking is essential (by email): creeksidecentre@yahoo.co.uk
www.creeksidecentre.org.uk