AiR has begun a staying in the Lea Valley. 

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. How can we prompt alternate logistics and distribution of 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’ and ‘Pinball’ have led to setting up a new home in Hastingwood Trading Estate; a research residency responding to sudden change as IKEA closes; a mapping of artist responses to the valley over the last 200 years, and the development of performance, audio and film works exploring (re)distribution (art/power/stuff) and making (here/now/then/next) everywhere in everyone’s everyday.

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 artists in the valley are, so far, Anna Harding, Lily Stevens, Billy Sassi, Blake Carlton-Joshua, Dunya Kalantery, Jimel Lopini, Dave Bamford, Maeve Laurence, Rubie Green, Anna Hart.