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’ in 2022 has led to setting up a new home in Hastingwood Trading Estate; a research residency and 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) everywhere in everyone’s 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 artists in the valley are, so far, Margot Bannerman, Anna Harding, Lily Stevens, Blake Carlton-Joshua, Dunya Kalantery, Dave Bamford, Maeve Laurence, Rubie Green, Anna Hart.