The Wash: Remember Nature is a tribute to this extraordinary coastal region of Eastern England. Resulting from the GroundWork Residency for 2026, it is culminating in one exhibition at GroundWork Gallery itself in King’s Lynn and another seven elsewhere in Norfolk and in Lincolnshire. The title is also a small dedication to Gustav Metzger, sometime King’s Lynn resident, artist and environmental activist. On November 4, 2015, Metzger initiated the Remember Nature project which invited all artists to address the crisis within nature. He intended to bring awareness to the damages that continue to devastate our natural world. It has become an annual event and falls within the timescale of these Wash projects, which are in themselves drawing attention to the hreats to the natural world, as well as to its special qualities.
Cover image: Emily Bowers, Wash drawing, work in progress
The brief to artists for the Groundwork Residency 2026 was to consider the culture and environments of the Wash Estuary. Having begun the season together as a group of 27, with intense scrutiny of the region via talks, discussions and field trips, each artist was then left to think about their own individual response. The hope was that the new impetus would stimulate further reflections and would lead to a range of different interpretations. Remarkably, while there were a number of shared interests, everyone came up with completely different idea. Each one was utterly true to their own practice.
Among the 27 artists, there were two pairs, so in effect there have been overall 25 working practices.
A summary list of approaches
Below is a very brief summary of each of their approaches. Biographies and further details appear below the list of exhibitions:
- Michal Bernasiak designs resourcefully with Wash waste
- Katy Bliss considers living with the Wash as a timeless water-land, experienced through its interdependent species and ecology
- Emily Bowers is using hands, feet and mud to make a large painting exploring ‘how does it feel to fly?’
- Karen Eng considered edges between environments: the ecotone, and made friends with an infant seagull, inspiring an installation
- Steven Follen researched pilgrim badges and made new designs for contemporary journeys
- Anna Harding sought to represent the New Vancouvers – young professionals who are creating a strong Wash identity now
- Anna Hart has led performative responses to the muddy edges between land and sea, with bodies, human and more than human
- Sarah Rooms Heaphy considered Ross Worm habitats and habits and created ways to immortalise them in ceramic
- Sara Heywood is exploring how to represent interpenetrating environments of salt and freshwaters, experimenting with pinhole photography and vegetal developers
- Petri Huurinainen listens with the land and water from where he composes reflectively with text and sound
- Jacqui Jones mapped fragile and threatened changing landscapes of the Wash through drought, flood and fire.
- Carol Justin made woodcuts using local pigments and a Japanese scroll recalling a long day at Holme beach
- Liz Kelleher collected and layered Wash earths, stones and wastes and responses to birds, land and sky to make paintings and sculpture
- James Murray-White’s film with composer Stevie Wishart and poet Harriet Tarlo considers salt marsh and sand dunes
- Mary Naylor painted rare Fen violets in memory of the early 19th Century female botanist who discovered them
- Andrew Olley and Ellen Sampson made field recordings along waterways, juxtaposing water-drainage and engineering networks
- Jane Prophet made sounds and visions from river to sea; explored mud as. non-Newtonian fluid and an installation of seaweeds plotting her walks.
- Rosy Prue layers imagery of plant habitats, juxtaposing hand and digital skills and materials
- Jane Sarre brought her permaculture knowledge to make a papier-maché tribute to the watery landscape
- Nicholas Simpson made filmic insights from watery Wash glimpses
- Louise Frances Smith thinking about movement and fluidity, made salt-marsh mud installations with references from glacial melt to over-fishing and farming
- Martins Strals is creating Ooze-La La for each exhibition opening – a theatrical take on the culinary specialties of the Wash.
- Harriet Tarlo writes poetry combining insights from plants, landscape, ecology and culture
- Adrian Tissier writes and performs out of sensitivity to birds, sky and land
- Luke Walker and Rita Rosa Monteiro made a film referencing layers of cultural attitudes to the Wash
The exhibitions
This year, owing to a rich series of partnerships around the Wash, we have a total of 8 exhibitions and a number of performances. Who is showing where is listed below. Each exhibition will get its own event page.
Groundwork Gallery, King’s Lynn, 10 October – 19 December
How can different ecosystems co-exist in the Wash to preserve its natural diversity and engineer its survival?
People to be featured here are: Anrew Olley and Ellen Sampson, Carol Wilhide Justin, Jane Prophet, Mary Naylor, Sara Heywood, Seven Follen, Louise Frances Smith, Nichola Simpson, Karen Eng, Sarah Rooms Heaphy, Liz Kelleher, Jacqui Jones, Luke Walker and Rita Rosa Monteiro,
Plus performances, readings by Adrian Tissier, Harriet Tarlo, Petri Huurinainen
Also, each artist will be represented by a small piece of work to be shown in our large display case .
The Old Worker’s Club, King’s Lynn, 10 – 18 October
Future Wash
Anna Harding installation
The Hub, Sleaford, 12 September – 1 November
How do we interpret different cultures and ecosystems of the Wash ?
Katie Bliss, Liz Kelleher, Sara Heywood,Anna Harding, Michal Bernasiak, Louise Frances Smith, Nicholas Simpson, Carol Wilhide Justin, Jacqui Jones, Harriet Tarlo
The Old Coastguard Station, Gibraltar Point, Lincs Wildlife Trust, 17 – 25 Oct
How can we find new ways to honour the Living Wash?
Sara Heywood, Rosie Prue, Jane Sarre
Frampton Marsh, RSPB Reserve Gallery, 26 Oct – 8 Nov
How can we map human life in harmony with birds?
Liz Kelleher, Karen Eng
North Sea Observatory 13 – 22 Nov
The Tide Will Always Turn
Anna Hart, Emily Bowers, Sarah Rooms Heapy, Michal Bernasiak, Louise Frances Smith
Joseph Banks Centre, Horncastle, 1 – 30 November.
How can we find poetry with plants?
Jane Prophet, Mary Naylor, Harriet Tarlo
Greenland Fishery, King’s Lynn, performances, dates tbc
How can we listen with the Wash?
Petri Huurinainen
