Uncanny Waters is a community costume and performance project and exhibition brought to life by Heads Bodies Legs collaborative artists Ray Malone and Lu Firth. It features the work of eleven intergenerational participants. The work reflects an exploration of the theme Uncanny Waters, and the symbolism of water as a site of connection, resistance and transformation.

There is an audio description text in the bottom of each image.  

The silhouetted legs of a person standing in dark muddy waters, dappled sun glints off the agitated surface.

A Jester stands ankle deep in water under the arch of a railway bridge, The iconic jester costume in blue and white has a dirty gold ruff. They stand in long rubber waders decorated with blue ribbons with a white painted face with sad blue tears

A triptych of images, glass gloves worn by Vogue dancer Francisco Zhan. The gloves made from found river glass and beach glass have been intricately soldered together in silver. The dancer stands in front of the graffiti in an ally near Creekside bridge in Deptford.

Britainnia, the national personification of Britain stands with trident, shield and waders in muddy waters. This Britannia has metal snakes in their helmet and Medusa’s face on her shield.  Their white and silver dress is decorated with Greek Tamas (votives), in striking contrast to the dark water and bridge.

A woman in a pink balaclava, white tracksuit with peach Adidas stripes. The track suit is open revealing a pink bra decorated with brown tassels and a tattoo of something wriggly on her waist. She stands in water under a bridge, with her black gloves she is pulling down the trousers to reveal her pants, also decorated with brown tassels. She arches her back and looks at us through the balaclava with her blue green eyes and lips.

Two images:

A wooden structure with a series of 10 fabric rectangles displayed in a row. The fabric is stretched over willow and the ends slot into the two wood rows. The transparent rectangle material printed with a faint brown image of mudlarked metal shapes that resemble Victorian navigational tools. In the background the wooden outline of Creekside Discovery Centre. Flags decorate the building, one of a crabs claw, the other a pink triangle.

The silhouette of a person wearing white stands with a white transparent material attached to their back. The material is knotted with red stitches. Another figure with similar short cropped hair manipulates the material. The stance suggests motion.

A person ankle deep in water stands in a Creek under a bridge wearing a sheer skirt and a top. Their arm and leg is held aloft, giving the appearance of them radiating out of the water.

A person sits on a wooden decking. They wear a Victorian bonnet and skirt, on their torso they wear costumed silicone pecs. They are stitching into the skin ‘Biology is Not Destiny.’ On the stump of tree trunk next to them sits a large silicone belly which is filling with Creek water from a fish bowl.

A red, papier maché, ‘day-of-dead; skeleton hanging from the rafters, wears a black t-shirt with a red triangle on it. A chain around their neck holds the sign Silence + Death.

A fish-person stands in Creek water, they wear a large 18th century style skirt with patterned with a map of the Thames. Draped in green and cream pearls with fabric ribbed flippers in blue. On their head is a fish shaped headpiece with big eyes. They hold aloft their long fabric skirt tail out of the water.

A tattooed person in a cream balaclava embellished with pearls stands in Creek water, bending towards the view and making direct eye contact. They wear an apron made of black and white hand prints, a matriarchal lineage, with red thread over the life lines. The top bandages their chest and the light shines effervescent on their skin. The Victorian stone work of the bridge is visible above and around them.

A woman walks towards us. On her backpack is a wooden frame which holds banners and flags aloft, flapping in the summer breeze. 2 green printed and embroidered banners read ‘Embrace Diversity’ above nautical flags which read: Queer As Fuck (for those that can decipher semaphore). She wears a small red hat, sailors trousers, a white shirt and blue neckerchief. At the top of the structure a large rainbow umbrella is open.

Five figures are seen in a procession through muddy water, they stand in the low light of sunset and look up. Two figures in black are holding a white sail, one of these figures where’s a balaclava decorated with mudlarked pipes to resemble the teeth of a leech. In front of them is a woman wearing a wooden structure on her back which holds rolled up banners and nautical flags. The group are led by a figurehead in a flowered wreath. They wear an extraordinary large silicone belly filled with Creek water over silicone pecks which have the words: Biology is Not Destiny hand embroidered across the chest.

CREDITS

Des Crip

Writer Annie Hayter was born in a paddling-pool near Deptford, beneath a waning Cancer moon. They delight in writing about queer transformations and flatulent saints– coming third in the Cúirt New Writing Prize for Poetry, shortlisted for The White Review’s Poet’s Prize and Desperate Literature Prize. Their work has been found in The Big Issue, Rialto, MAGMA, TimeOut, and on Radio 3.

 

DesCript is an informal, blind-led collective which describes and documents exhibitions using collaborative approaches to knowing. @descript.art. For this project, DesCript was: Annie Hayter @hannieayter (writer & performer), Autumn Sharkey @autumn_sharkey (description facilitator & support worker), Joseph Rizzo Naudi @joeraudi (description facilitator & producer)

PHOTOGRAPHY

Ray Malone and Henri T

With Thanks to Photographers Kathryn McGreary and Dilyana Tankova for their assistance with the Uncanny Waters shoot in Deptford Creek.