That Wet Stuff (and other things), 2024

 

That Wet Stuff (and other things) was an outdoor exhibition and event at Allotment Soup: the Isle of Walney Community growing space, celebrating water and its possibilities, focusing on the themes of sustenance, craft, and water ecologies. It featured the final works by Art Gene’s 2024 artists in residence, Anna Clough and Jenny Steele, alongside a day-long programme of water-focused activities. These included talks on water ecologies, seagrass restoration, and earth construction, as well as film screenings, campfire poetry, and artworks by Art Gene’s artists.

Some pieces highlighted water’s role in food production, focusing on everyday items like mushy peas, salt, and fishing practices. Others examined how water shapes building techniques using materials like clay and woven reeds.

The exhibition also invited audiences to reconsider how we care for water bodies and ecosystems beyond ourselves, with a particular focus on seagrass restoration along the coastline — and the possibility of beginning a local journey toward granting more rights to our waters.

 

Participating artists:

Anna Clough, Bethan Pettitt, Cella Collective, Emma McGordan, Jenny Steele, Julie Parks, Maddi Nicholson, Stuart Bastik.

Other professionals involved: 

Cumbria Wildlife Trust; marine ecologist Amber Gould, ecologist Jenny Holden, The Embassy of the North (Film – Confluence of European Water Bodies).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anna Clough

Anna Clough was Art Gene’s REAL Barrow Artist in Residence for 2024. During her residency, Anna developed a project focused on mushy peas. Through public workshops with Barrow’s Autistic community, Anna explored the steps towards mushy pea production and how different objects rise and fall in importance along the way. Her sessions included pea-growing activities on Allotment Soup, where water is crucial for cultivation, and creative drawing workshops – with the resulting artwork screen-printed onto chip shop paper. These printed papers were later distributed to pie shops and fish and chip shops in Barrow.  

Anna’s project ended with a collaborative zine-making session on mushy peas and mushy pea making workshop. Her workshop made a second appearance just before the evening meal at the final event and exhibition.

Special thanks to all the participants who joined Anna’s sessions and to Green’s Pie Shop, Olympic Chip Shop, Sea Breeze Fish Bar for their openness and collaboration throughout the project.  

Comb-brine, 2024  

Anna also explored the rich industrial history of Barrow, focusing on the town’s once thriving salt works industry.  

In the late 1800s, Walney was home to its own salt works, owned by the Barrow Salt Company. Four large derricks were placed near Biggar to extract the salt from the ground. The salt was then sent down to South Walney, where the salt was sorted and transported by ship or train to other destinations in the UK. The works were dissolved at the start of the 1900s. A plan was later devised but never implemented to open a ‘Brine Baths’ on Walney, with the hope of developing a holiday destination based on its natural resources.  

Comb-brine, celebrated the power of a natural material to create industries and shape connected livelihoods and communities.  

 

 

 

 

When zinc and copper are submerged in salt water an electrical current is generated. Showcasing the material capabilities of salt, Anna’s piece, Crossing the sands, 2024, used the natural properties of salt to power and play an archival recording of ‘Crossing the Sand’ from the North Lonsdale Magazine (1866). The recording recounts the terrain during an unexpected journey across Morecambe Bay – a landscape known for its sweeping tidal sands, shifting channels and rich biodiversity. Special thanks to Cumbria Archives for providing access to the Ellen Rose Fieldhouse Collection. 

Read more about Anna’s practice here.

Jenny Steele

Jenny Steele joined us in the Summer (2024) as part of our Visiting Artists Programme. Jenny’s Rituals for Tomorrow is a new research, engagement & production project to identify sustainable ways to use weaving with everyday wild plant life, in a way that supports our wellbeing, connection to nature and sense of belonging.  

Working with Art Gene and Rogue Artists Studios (Openshaw, Manchester) and various creative practitioners, Jenny lead a series of weaving and wellbeing workshops. The results contributed to two large scale artworks made from local flora and fauna, one of which was displayed on our pond. A collection of short films sharing weaving techniques, plant life and personal narratives were also created from the project and will be available to view on Jenny’s website. 

The project was supported by a Project Grant from Arts Council England. Workshops at Allotment Soup, Art Gene, Barrow-in-Furness were supported by Coastal North Collective. 

Charon, 2024

Installation on the pond by Jenny Steele & Walney Weavers 

 

Charon was the ferrywoman that carried people across the waters from the living to the dead in a boat, leading to the underworld in Greek mythology. The Charon is a celebratory woven sculpture that moves freely over water, highlighting the ever-changing transitions, losses, and fragility of life. It incorporates plants from the Allotment Soup site itself, woven into its floating structure. The sculpture appears animal-like and alive in form, as it moves with the wind and water onWalney Island.

The boat sculpture was constructed from woven materials and tassels made by Jenny Steele and Walney Weavers during workshops in July 2024 at Allotment Soup. Participants included members from Women’s Community Matters, Allotment Soup volunteers, and the local homeschooling community.  

Read more about Jenny’s practice here.