Thames Whale

Available for over a year

Extraordinary reports of whales into the River Thames date back to the seventeenth century. Most recently, the northern bottlenose whale “Willy” (2006), “Benny The Beluga” (2018) and a juvenile minke whale (2021) have stirred a collective hysteria and highlighted nature’s precarious, yet persistent role in the hallucinogenic heart of London. Richard Sabin (Principal Curator for Mammals at Natural History Museum, London) and Jessica Sarah Rinland (filmmaker ‘We Account The Whale Immortal’) weave their way through the cult of cetacean celebrity, British folklore and a living archive of whale bones. Where the sea transforms into a city, they probe the temporal, tidal space of the Thames, whales – ancient, alien and yet remarkably connected to humans – and the Londoner as witness. Elsewhere, 23-year-old Londoner Abondance Matanda reads a specially-commissioned eulogy for all those who have found themselves submerged in the city’s “big belly kingdom of concrete.” As primal apparitions in the brackish, belching Thames – once declared biologically dead in 1959 - do these whales offer a utopian antidote for human longing? Can their transitory and often tragic presence provide any more than a fleeting rupture within the oppressive monotony of the metropolis? About Joseph Joseph is a multidisciplinary artist, community organiser and sports coach. Their practice centres intergenerational knowledge sharing and collaboration through practical workshops, sports methodologies and open-source resources. Joseph works predominantly within site-specific contexts and peer-to-peer platforms including artist-run spaces, online radio and DIY communities. Recent sound work has been broadcast on BBC (Between the Ears, The Verb), NTS (Tough Matter), and exhibited at Wellcome Collection (London) with Bhebhe&Davies and Futura Centre for Contemporary Art (Prague) with Ashley Holmes. In 2021, Joseph received a Percolate Programme Residency at Siobhan Davies Studios and an Image Behaviour commission at The Institute of Contemporary Arts to develop experimental moving image, sound and movement work with RUT. New Creatives is supported by Arts Council England and BBC Arts. Joseph Bond – Producer & Music Richard Sabin – Principal Curator for Mammals at Natural History Museum, London Jessica Sarah Rinland – Artist & Filmmaker Abondance Matanda – Poet Imani Robinson – Newsreader Martha Pazienti Caidan (NTS) – Executive Producer