Ama Josephine Budge: Water Bodies: Homage to Haunting
How do the hauntings of the River Thames – its histories of toxicity, colonialism and climate change – urge us to change how we interact with our climate-changing landscape?
Ama Josephine Budge has been walking beside the River Thames, thinking about the water as a site of history, haunting and possibility. Ama reconsiders who has access to green spaces of beauty and reflection, and whose histories and dead are honoured and remembered here. We are all entangled in reimagining the stories we tell about this great river and our place along its banks.
During her walks beside the river, Ama collected its debris to create a series of sculptural anti-monuments. These anti-monuments honour the stories of those who arrived upon its shores by force, those that came filled with dreams and those for whom the Thames is still a sacred passage between past, present and future.
Ama collaborated with artists, writers and ecological practitioners on this project. Her research is in partnership with St Mary’s University, Twickenham and the Being Human Festival.
About Ama Josephine Budge
Ama Josephine Budge is a British-Ghanaian speculative writer, artist, curator and pleasure activist. Her practice navigates queer explorations of race, art, ecology and feminism. Ama’s installation, written and video art works have been commissioned, exhibited and published internationally.
