Pollution Portraits, 2024

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This series of embroideries on fabric-printed photographs explores the problem of invisible pollution in the River Wandle. Using colour-changing nitrate and phosphate testing kits provided by Earthwatch Europe, I discovered that the Wandle has more than double the ideal level of these invisible pollutants even in its healthiest-looking areas. The unnaturally bright colours of the test result, stitched over the water, contrast with the abundant greenery and suggest to the viewer that something may be amiss. 

Distraught and disgusted by the discovery that my beloved local river, the Wandle, was being routinely polluted by discharges of untreated sewage by Thames Water, I started crafting a response to this ongoing problem, based on my observations of the Wandle. 

Delicately marbled polyester satin pebbles in a rainbow of hues adorn the bodice of the outfit, suggesting the carefully constructed cocoon of the caddis fly larva. Water crowfoot, cut from polycotton and plastic garden netting, drapes from the hat and shoulder like nature’s very own feather boa. The skirt, a tangle of individually dyed and hemmed plastic “wet wipes” encroaches onto the carefully sculpted shape, distorting the silhouette and leaving a tide line of silt-covered bottle caps in its wake.

I acquired an authentic Thames Water workman’s jacket from the early 1980s, a time when Thames Water were a publically owned company and part of efforts to rewild the Wandle. I created an embroidered scene on the back of the jacket, celebrating the botanical exuberance of the wild Wandle. I also added an interactive element which shows Thames Water’s attitude to the Wandle now; pulling on the red tab releases a stream of fabric “sewage” through the clear blue water. 

Created for Sutton STEAMS Ahead, a summer learning programme celebrating the links between STEM subjects and the arts, I made a collection of items of clothing that formed a storytelling performance. These garments told the story of the textile history of the Wandle - the early understanding of chemistry that enables the bleaching grounds on the banks of the river, the international trade in plants and animals for dye production, the cotton trade and production that started the Industrial Revolution, the mathematics involved in the cut and construction of clothing, the discovery of aniline dyes, and the impact of William Morris and his socialist and ethical approach to textiles. The storytelling performances took place at Honeywood Museum and Little Holland House for an audience of adults and children. 

During pandemic lockdown walks I collected lost clothing and textile waste from the Wandle Trail and other parks and green spaces along the River Wandle in South London. I created a series of quilts, presenting these forsaken scraps and garments as though they were something precious and worth preserving. I also found vintage fabrics fly-tipped in a nature reserve, and made clothing inspired by the wildlife I saw on my walks. 

I was really fascinated by the way our everyday usage of textiles affects the environment, and how we interact with both the environment and our clothes. Clothes have never been so cheap and plentiful, so does this mean we have lost our emotional attachment to them? Do they become just another piece of litter, a piece of single-use rubbish?