Sound, Image, Ecology
Exhibition exploring the value of water in our landscapes at a time of environmental change through the sensory experience of different bodies of water. On display will be varied and immersive works involving sound, story, moving image, visual art, and other mixed media.
Created by multidisciplinary artists Ellen Wiles and Arun Sood, the works explore various watery ecologies in the UK, from rivers and lakes in South West England to tidal islands in the Outer Hebrides. They explore issues of water resilience and nature restoration, and themes of movement and memory, degradation and renewal, and relationships between human and more-than-human lives.
Each work has been created in response to a specific watery place: the Otterhead Lakes (Blackdown Hills), Porlock Vale (Exmoor), Countess Wear (Exeter), and the tidal island of Vallay (The Outer Hebrides).
All provoke questions around the entanglements between these waterscapes and their inhabitants, histories, and imagined futures.
Coordinating programme of art activities and events including a family drop-in workshop and artist talk on the opening day.
Exhibition opening on Saturday 17 January 2026
11.00am to 3.00pm – drop-in family printing workshop
5.00 to 5.30pm – official opening
5.30 to 5.45pm – live performance by the artists and film screening
6.00pm – in conversation talk between the artists and Tim Youngs from the Blackdown Hills National Landscape
Image: © Arun Sood
