The river
Book carving sculptures - January 2023
This was my take on “The River”, a project about delivering a sequence based off of an interpretation of the river and what it means to me. Each book is symbolic of a person I came across in my research of the Thames, and what I believe their own ‘rivers’ would look like based on their personal journeys. Each book was chosen specifically with some relation to their character, and was hand-carved page by page to resemble the river Thames when put together. They each include little paper figurines and a gouache painting to illustrate their respective stories. Along their bare covers are quotes by the person and/or poems written by myself, touching on the piece’s wider theme of migration, journeys and emotions.
The first depicts the experience of a figure of history, calypso singer Lord Kitchener who travelled to London from on the Empire Windrush ship in 1948 from the West Indies.
The second revolves around my father, who was a boat-person from Vietnam who had never seen water so blue before arriving in the UK to start his new life.
The third relates to myself and my own imagining of the river, with my own bleak outlook on its murky depths and worsening state as the years pass by.
The fourth and final shows a stranger’s perspective, whom I had come across on a walk where they were spending quality time with their children, raising them in a country far from their own home.
