Antony Lysons presented at a workshop in the Netherlands, as part of the coastal twinning ‘Between The Tides’ network. (The Severn Estuary and the Waddensee are connected as part of this 2-year AHRC networking project) The AHRC workshop was linked to a larger ‘Sense of Place’ international symposium and hosted by the Waddenacadamie

1. SUBMERGED
(DROWNED LANDS)
&
SABRINA
DREAMING

2. SUBMERGED
(DROWNED LANDS)

3. Presenting work-in-progress, June 2014
Artistic research undrerway in two landscape settings - both
connected to the Severn Estuary and both ‘between the tides...’
This is to give a flavour of the research processes and evolving
sculptural installations
Both projects involve a kind of reconnection - one primarily
about people and place, the other addressing disconnection
between river/estuary and floodplain issues
My collaborative explorations with CCRI, Dr Iain Biggs and
Professor Steve Poole are partly about developing models and
methods of working with creativity and complexity in changing
landscapes

4. ✴ Submerged (Drowned Lands) - A longer term project;
creative eco-geo-poetic explorations of landscapes
where there are dynamic and often contentious
dialogues between land and water. Extending
perspectives and connectivities. A weaving, tapestry.
✴ Creatively investigated through immersive sculptural
installation (data-augmented spaces), sound and video.
✴ Natural and Cultural Ecosystems; the tensions within
and between human and non-human realms
✴ Investigating material and intangible cultures of place,
as a platform for the future
✴ Playing with time-frames and journeys

5. Also Submerged is suggestive of the hidden/obscured.
Bringing to the surface from the depths.There is light
and dark...
Shadows and Undercurrents
The creative approach is a tapestry

6. SABRINA DREAMING
Severn Estuary Tidelands
Artist-In-Residence at CCRI, 2014

7. These three photographs were
important in the genesis of the Sabrina
Dreaming (Severn EstuaryTidelands)
project, representing a complex
meshing of cultural pilgrimage,
ecological/estuary disconnection, social
resistance and social sculpture.Their
essences are still strong in the
process, as it moves forward.

9. Looming in the background of Sabrina Dreaming is the hydra-
like Severn Barrage plan.The Angler’s Trust estimate that 25%
of all salmonid spawning habitat in England and Wales lies
upstream of the proposed barrage.The estuary is also a
migratory route for sea lamprey, river lamprey, allis shad,
twaite, shad and eel. In the Netherlands I've been told of an
extraordinary project to aid fish migration.There is clearly
some vital knowledge-sharing to be conducted here.

10. The fish migration river is a nature restoration project aimed at
building a fish passage through the Afsluitdijk.This passage will
provide a connection so that migrating fish can swim freely between
theWadden Sea and the IJsselmeer.The 6-kilometre long river
ensures a gradual transition from sea water to fresh water.This is
better for migrating fish such as eel, which benefit from moving
between theWadden Sea and the Ijsselmeer.

11. “Anticipatory Adaptation”
“Stilt Life”
“Occupy the Intertide”
3 Walks

12. These are some strands of a forthcoming short film,
Transgression, based on three walking conversations
on the estuary coast in the company of Dr Iain Biggs.
We seek to interweave timescales of deep-time,
ice(age)-time, human time, tide-time.The film will be
part of an eco-symbolic mingling of the factual and
imaginative in a sculptural installation. Selected site-
specific materials serve to ground the ideas and build
connection to the place. I am interested in making a
connection between a 'geo' fieldwork frame of mind,
and artistic research methods.

13. Eco-symbolic: mingling factual and imaginative
In a sculptural installation, such materials
serve to ground the ideas, and build
connection to place.

14. “The land unfolds for the geologist as he passes over it,
revealing an infinite number of perspectives that are
integrated and contrasted in his mind....these results are built
upon the intuitive use of judgement in which the geologist
selects and constructs a system of signs, and blends multiple
perspectives from a nearly infinite amount of potential data."
Robert Frodeman

15. TRANSGRESSION
‘‘a relative rise in sea level resulting in
deposition of marine strata over
terrestrial strata. The sequence of
sedimentary strata formed by
transgressions and regressions provides
information about the changes in sea
level during a particular geologic time’’

16. Recently, my residency hosts - the CCRI research group - accompanied me on a
fact-finding excursion along the estuary coast. One of our ports of call was to a
local farmer who has had intimate experience with flooding and who is leading a
grass-roots campaign for justice.

17. Another kind of grass-roots determination - and struggle - was to be found at
Newnham-on-Severn where we encountered the world of traditional fishing and
the efforts being made to ensure its survival in the face of many challenges.

18. An increasingly important
connection for the project is
found further south where the
River Avon meets the estuary.
Here, the Learning Ships initiative
is bringing school-groups on
river/tide experiential boat-trips,
encountering a range of
perspectives on these waters -
past, present and future.These
trips have been an opportunity
to highlight topics such as the
pre-urbanisation saltmarsh
landscape and the richness of the
habitat that is still to be found,
but which is largely unseen. On
the most recent trip, I introduced
the list of the 'Top 15' fish
species, with special emphasis on
the impressive - and unsettling -
mouth of the Lamprey.

19. Estuary (Guardian) Angels

20. Adaptation concepts

21. Another rich strand of Sabrina Dreaming relates to the
bronze figurines of the 'Aust Goddess', found at the coast at
Aust near Bristol, which is also the site of the slowly
crumbling ferry jetty that was one the main crossing point
of the estuary. As one of the outputs emerging from the
project, I'm devising a performative event at a site on the
coast which will re-cast the figurines.

24. Project Blog
sabrinadreaming.blogspot.co.uk

25. Submerged (Drowned Lands) 2:
Somerset Levels

27. The possibilities for Submerged (Drowned Lands)
here, and now, involve a gathering-in of diverse
voices, as a platform for imagined futures. In the
heightened post-flooding/flood-recovery context,
the pairing of a historical researcher and an
environmental artist-researcher can both bypass and
interweave the official channels, institutional views,
local voices, campaigning voices etc.

34. The artwork installation will involve suspended micro-speakers that
will present 100s of ‘voices’ - past present and future imaginings
Local people as well as professionals, media reportage, historical...
It will include an element of ‘way-back sounds’
All the sounds will flow as a ‘tidal wave’ to and fro, using tidal data
from the River Parrett.
Visitors will annotate their own words, adding to a living. morphing
document...

37. 3 journeys

38. Getting up close and personal: a direct multi-sensorial contact with the materials
and dynamics of the landscape, with strong echoes of historical and pre-historical
being-in-this-place. In-betweeness, in a liminal space, extracting us temporarily from
the empiricism of maps and strategies, and from the everyday, into a realm of
timelessness...

39. Future journeys?
Past journeys