The earth. The air. Regenerative being and re-imagining futures. Flow infrastructures – water, electricity, bodies (birds, horses, eels, fish, human*), trains, bikes, boats, trucks, cars, waste. How can we prompt alternate logistics and distribution of/with art?

*We often work with fine artists and we also work with dancers, musicians, writers, geographers, architects, and in this valley we seek to work with footballers, walkers, runners, birders, boaters, tennis players, cyclists, sunbathers, picnickers, ravers, fishermen, riders, as well as metal workers, carpenters, bakers, machinists, and other makers.

‘Three Long Walks’ in 2022 led to a research residency on Hastingwood Trading Estate; an exhibition ‘ELKS in the rear window’ responding to sudden change as IKEA closed; a mapping of artist responses to the valley over the last 200 years in a new public archive The Valley Room; and the development of performance, audio and film works exploring (re)distribution (art/power/stuff) and making (here/now/then/next) in the valley everyday. Walks and residencies with art students extend the research into being with and in a place, and making work in response.

Our Lea Valley staying developed from a post-pandemic desire to support embodied practice in nourishing landscapes and simultaneously enact expedient research and commissioning structures in times of social and climate emergency. AiR associated artists in the valley are, to date, Nick Smith, Hayley Harrison, Rakhee Jasani, Otis Chetwynd-Woods, Eddie Jack Trigg, Wai Ka Yau, Kathrin Böhm, Ben Nathan, Hilary Powell, Henrietta Williams, Margot Bannerman, Anna Harding, Lily Stevens, Jade Chao, Florence Dent, Sam Blunden, Blake Carlton-Joshua, Dunya Kalantery, Maeve Laurence, Rubie Green, Anna Hart.