River Weekender

Box: 020 232 1010 (open 1-9pm daily) or online (free booking)

Maria Arceo presents
Future Dust – all ages
Entrance Terrace. 10am-11pm. FREE. (15-20 Sept)
Since September 2016, Maria Arceo has been collecting plastic from over 40 beaches along the tidal Thames, from Teddington up to the Sea. Beachcombing, handpicking, identifying, and colour-coding found plastic debris, Arceo has created a final art piece that aims to visualise the sheer scale of plastic litter that is found along the shores of the tidal river, while also allowing the viewer to relate with these individual objects when examined in close detail.
The installation will be touring across different locations in London and will be illuminated at night. The light installation is designed by Dutch interactive light artist Tim Scheffer.
Talks by artist: Sat & Sun, 1pm on the Entrance Terrace.

Totally Thames in partnership with Watermans presents
Working River: Photographic Exhibition – ALL AGES
Riverside Gallery. 10am-11pm. FREE.
Uncovering the history of the working river over the past 60 years, spotlighting how many boatyards have been forced to close.
The Working River project has documented stories of working lives in London’s Boatyards over the past 60 years, on the tidal Thames. Including the significant history of barge and boat building at Brentford Docks, and at Lots Ait, as well as yards from Toughs in Teddington, to Cory Environmental in Charlton, the project has recorded oral histories with key figures in London’s Boatyards, and the changes that have occurred over this time.
This exhibition highlights the photography of Hydar Dewachi, who was commissioned to document and respond to the working boatyards today. His photography and portraits hang alongside a documentary film about the boatyards, produced by Digital:Works, which will available to watch throughout the exhibition.

Saturday 16 & Sunday 17 September

Sat 16 – Sun 17 Sept,
Gen Doy presents
As the Crow Flies – ALL AGES
Riverside Gallery Balcony. 10am-9pm. FREE.
As the Crow Flies is a sound installation and was made from field-recordings and research in Chalkwell, Southend, and in the disused firing range on the Isle of Grain on the south side of the Thames Estuary. The two so-called crow-stones north and south of the river mark the boundary of the authority of the Port of London. Crows are disliked by farmers and gamekeepers who often kill them and string them up on fences as a warning. The skies of the Thamesestuary are home to crows and other birds but were also in the past crossed by artillery shells being fired from Isle of Grain to Mapplin Sands near Southend. During WW2 searchlights also criss-crossed the skies. This piece uses sound to invite reflections on how people with weapons and the power to enforce exclusion areas, boundary markers and fences attempt to keep out or destroy what they see as pests and intruders.

Travel Unravelled Summer Exhibition in the Gallery – ALL AGES
10am-9pm. FREE.
Come and look at the work of the talented children and young people who took part in our summer programme Travel Unravelled. Includes free drop-in creative activities.


Sat 16 & Sun 17 September
Osadia Hair Sculpture on the Terrace – ALL AGES
Riverside Terrace. Drop in to take part or watch, 12.30-2pm & 3-4.30pm. FREE.
QUOTE: ‘They create fantastically strange hairdos on willing and brave audience members’ BBC
Hairdressing becomes theatre in the barber's chairs of OSADIA. The audience becomes the central performer and is transformed on stage as styling becomes a showpiece, much to the enthralled rapture of the remaining audience. Will you be a pirate or a mermaid?