Worshipping the River
Worshipping the River: Using artistic and spiritual practices to create an emotional engagement between humans, non-humans and rivers and improve their wellbeing.
My main ambition for this project was to create a space that would cultivate a relationship between humans and the River, in this case Irwell in Manchester UK. From the research I did I found out that only 14% of Rivers in the UK are classified with good ecological status. I also noticed that not many people enjoy the riverside or even always have proper access to it in the city centre. It became a goal of mine to give people a reason to go to the River and reap the benefits of spending time close to the water and in turn also improve its own health.
I began to investigate the way in which different people relate to Rivers for example investors in the U.S. who see the River as a resource, investing in plots of land with water rights so they can sell water to places which are affected by draughts versus indigenous tribes in Brazil, New Zealand and India who view Rivers as a sacred entity. From this I developed my design methodology which involves exploring the site through my own physical body, performing dances and rituals for the River and later translating my experience into form through sculpture.
At last, I arrived at a program that is a performing arts centre on water that is aimed at young people in Manchester, giving them an activity to do and place to go to in their free time. The architecture consists of a series of deconstructed theatres on water or overlooking the water. I took the main elements of a traditional theatre like the seating for the audience at multiple levels, the stage and backstage and reimagined them in a new form and configuration that is less informal and incentivises improvisation of use. The atmosphere in this space is joyful, familiar and inclusive which changes the narrative a little from the typical more elitist and exclusive environments that can be slightly intimidating in a traditional theatre.
