Naomi Hart

'Reading Water'

For this project I wanted to follow the course of the river Exe from Exeter to Riversmeet in Topsham, walking along the east bank, reading poems and texts about rivers that I feel are relevant or inspiring and collecting objects and materials to make an artist's book. The river had other ideas, so the walks were broken and meandering, much like the river itself.

The piece is called 'Reading Water' - a term used by people who fish, by sailors and surfers, trying to understand what is happening on and in the water's waves, currents and tides. The root of the name Exeter is 'Isca', meaning 'water', so this piece is both 'reading Exeter' and 'reading the river'.

I invite you to read the water if you are able to walk, kayak, swim, or cycle along and around the river. Many of the poems are available online, which I invite you to read and ponder, or find your own books or poems that spark your imagination. Perhaps you want to make your own book, or write your own words about this river or another river.

The final piece is a book of cyanotype prints of water, fragments of poems and objects that I found while walking, some natural, some manufactured. Some of the poems I read are about wildlife in rivers, some are about rivers far away and remind me how we are connected to other places and times by water.

As the river water is part of a great cycle of nature, the book has been made using re-purposed paper (lining paper, wrapping paper, paper salvaged from an office fire), home-made glue (wheat flour, water), home-made oak gall ink (including oak galls, rust, wine found in an Exe Valley nature reserve, wine vinegar and river water), ascorbic acid (lemon juice), mud from the Exe, natural chalk and cyanotype using river water.

Naomi Hart is an artist whose work looks at human interaction with the environment, especially themes around water, elements, journey and memory. She uses many different media including salvaged materials and found objects to investigate the world and her practice is informed by journeys and direct observation from nature.

To find out more about this project and Naomi’s work, head here: http://naomi-hart.com/work/reading-water/

To enjoy ‘Reading Water’ as a digital book, follow this link.

To find out more about the poems that inspired Naomi, scroll beyond the images below...