"To The River" Exhibition by Sophy Rickett

I went to the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol to see the work of Sophy Rickett. The piece I saw was 'To The River' a new video/sound installation, filmed during the spring equinox on the banks of the River Severn. The film focuses on a group of people a waiting for the Severn Bore to pass. The Severn Bore is a tidal surge that sweeps up the estuary of the River Severn during a certain time of the year, it is one of the largest in the world and many people come to see it. The piece investigates the relationship between humans and the natural world.

Sophy writes: ‘The project will explore issues that have resonance locally, and also globally. I am interested in ideas around politics and the environment, and also in the very demanding and teleological relationship humans have with the natural world. I am also interested in the Bore as a subject in itself, and equally in its ‘agency’ in broader philosophical and cultural terms.’

The film is projected on three different screens in the corners of a large dark room, each screen is edited to play different parts of the film at the same time. A recording is played in the room, a mixture of crowd talking and waiting for the wave to pass and the low rumbling of the River Severn in the background. The sound echos around the room, surrounding the viewer. You hear the crowd joke and banter, while trying to entertain themselves in the cold while they wait. For a long time the crowd suddenly fall silent while small waves pass, this silence seem endless in the dark and you feel the same anticipation as the crowd, until a women breaks the silence and the crowd being talking again.