Curated and produced by UP Projects ‘Bodies of Water’ is a site-specific public art commission by Anne Duk Hee Jordan, which will unfold across two locations in England A la Ronde in Exmouth, East Devon and Haigh Hall in Wigan, Greater Manchester in 2025.
Bodies of Water is an ambitious project in response to the urgent environmental needs within the UK and internationally to manage water more effectively. Acknowledging that water moves in cycles, passing through humans and other organisms German/Korean artist Anne Duk Hee Jordan will create two site-specific sculptural works that will harvest, filter and circulate rainwater whilst following the principles of regenerative and sustainable design. These unique public artworks will explore the politics of water, drawing from the history of each of these locations, specialist knowledge from scientists, researchers and conservation specialists at Exeter University, RSPB and Julie's Bicycle. It is also underpinned by insights of local communities, engaged through a community collaboration programme in both locations.
Bodies of Water is Jordan’s first UK public commission, which sees the artist confronting the politics of water through an ecological lens. The title references Astrida Neimanis', Canadian cultural historian, 2017 book, Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology, which focusses on the myriad relationships humans have with water, oceans, and aquatic life; Neimanis considers the body as a vessel of water inviting readers to examine their responsibility in the climate emergency.
Bodies of Water is a continuation of Jordan’s longstanding interest in ecological phenomena and ecosystems, where they have previously conducted undersea diving excursions and scientific exchanges with marine biologists, toxicologists, ecologists and geologists.
About the Artworks
I travelled 66 million years to be with you and then you came is a temporary sculpture situated at the National Trust property A la Ronde, Exmouth. Exploring themes of resilience and dependence on the environment, the work features a base of locally sourced slate stones supporting a series of fabricated, larger-than-life barnacles – a sea species renowned for its toughness. These forms are made from materials with water-filtering properties, including Roman concrete, a plant-based version of activated charcoal known as biochar, shell fragments, zeolite minerals and iron oxide, offering a nod to the two substantial Victorian underground brick tanks at A la Ronde that historically enabled the site to be fully self-sufficient. In a practical sense, the sculpture also demonstrates how natural materials can purify water, as birds and insects are able to drink from water collected and filtered by the sculpture itself.
Snail on me is a site-specific 5-year installation which includes a sculpture and new pond in the walled garden at Haigh Hall. The pond collects and filters rainwater as well as creating habitats that encourage biodiversity. Fabricated in steel and steel mesh, the sculpture evokes real and mythological creatures – such as a chimera, a mythological creature made up of multiple animal parts, gastropods, slugs and snails, and mythological elements like snake tongues.
In response to the urgent environmental needs within the UK and internationally to manage water more effectively, these site-specific interventions explore the politics of water by drawing upon science, historic wisdom, nature and biomimicry.
Not only raising awareness but inspiring action, this latest project places an emphasis on the relationship between public art and the climate crisis, a major theme of concern for UP Projects over the past 20 years which has seen it commission innovative sculptural bird boxes, floating gardens, immersive VR works and new mural commissions that advocate for access to clean air.
Bodies of Water is commissioned and curated by UP Projects working in partnership with National Trust and Wigan Council. It is generously funded by Arts Council England, Art Fund and Vallum Associates, and supported by Goethe-Institut with engineering support from Civic Engineers.
If you’re interested in receiving any further info about this project, email Communications and Development Coordinator Zoe Scholes at zoe@upprojects.com.
UP Projects would like to thank the partners, fabricators, collaborators and friends who have helped us to realise I travelled 66 million years to be with you and then you came at A la Ronde in Exmouth: David Collings and Karen Kelly at A la Ronde (National Trust), Barbara Wood and Tom Freshwater (National Trust), Mark Plenderleith and Lisa Scantlebury (Plenderleith Scantlebury), Frank Foley and Shelley Castle (Flete field Lab), Cameron Bishop, George Belsey and Mark Austin, Richard Smith (Stert Farm Quarry), Andrew Ruck, Laura Norris and Pak Yin Lee (Civic Engineers), Alice Bonnot and Graciela Melitsko Thornton (Julie’s Bicycle), Sarah Elghady (Arts & Culture East Devon), Anne-Marie Culhane, Lara Goodband and Thomas Cadbury (Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter), Dr Monica Craciun, Dr Mike Allen and Peter Melville-Shreeve (University of Exeter), and Robin Horner (RSPB).
Online platform
Jordan has created a new interactive digital platform that connects the two public art commissions situated in Exmouth and Wigan. This website offers real-time tracking of local temperature and rainfall at both locations, while also monitoring the carbon footprint of each visit to highlight the environmental impact of our online presence. Visitors can explore in-depth information about the commissioned artworks, access a calendar of public events, and delve into a curated library of resources focused on environmental practice, queer ecologies, and the politics of water.
Community Collaboration Programme
To inform the development of Bodies of Water, a Community Collaboration Programme took place during the Spring and Summer of 2024 across both sites at A la Ronde, Exmouth and Haigh Hall, Wigan respectively. Between June and August 2024, Wigan-based multimedia artist, Anna FC Smith led a series of co-created workshops with a group of local community ambassadors, who represented local organisations or groups, at Haigh Hall, Wigan. The group drew key insights and themes from Duk Hee’s proposals, and used the workshops as a space to collectively devise and propose a series of public activities and events which will take place at Haigh Hall in Autumn 2025.
Devon-based outdoor education specialist and Forest School expert, Richard Irvine, led workshops for children and young people across the Summer in 2024 at A la Ronde, Exmouth. A dedicated workshop was facilitated for pupils from Exeter Road Primary School, as well as workshops for local visitors, families and children from the Ukrainian Refugees East Devon. Both workshops invited the groups to use natural materials from the site at A la Ronde to collectively build a large water filtration vessel, exploring where our water comes from, how do we make it safe to drink and what its overall importance in our everyday lives is.
About A la Ronde
A la Ronde is an 18th-century, 16-sided cottage orné near Lympstone, Exmouth, Devon, England under the ownership of the National Trust. The house was built for two second cousins, Jane and Mary Parminter.
It is a Grade I registered building alongside the gardens which are Grade II listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
About Haigh Hall
Haigh Hall is a historic country house in Haigh, Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. Built between 1827 and 1840 for James Lindsay, 7th Earl of Balcarres, it replaced an ancient manor house and was a Lindsay family home until 1947, when it was sold to Wigan Corporation.
The hall is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building and is owned by Wigan Council.
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