During the Covid year of 2020, XAP artists began to spend more time in their nearby green spaces and by their local rivers. Separated by lockdowns and other enforced constraints to meeting, we realised that ‘our’ rivers – the Ver, the Lea, the Moselle – all flowed and eventually joined each other in the Thames Estuary. So the water that we walked by, watched flowing, swam in and paddle-boarded on, eventually merged, even though we ourselves were not able to meet.
Documenting this newly and differently focused relationship with our rivers, we joined with other artists in the participatory journaling and creative writing project The Water Replies, shaped by poets Selina Nwulu and Caroline Bird, and organised by Cement Fields and Metal for the Estuary Festival. Other journals were created by people living along the Thames Estuary coastline, with many choosing to reflect on lockdown spent near the Estuary. Some of the journals were collected from further afield, with visitors and past residents exploring the impact of the river on their memories. The books were displayed in Chatham and Rochester Libraries (North Kent), and were carefully filmed for audiences to read through and enjoy in the online archive.
