On Saturday 21 April, we presented ‘Strong Currents’, the culmination of Emperor Qin’s Mausoleum, an art project led by artist Marguerite Humeau in collaboration with OSE 2018 Associates Ian Bride, Coral Brookes, Rosa Irwin Clark, Katie Fiore, Una Hamilton Helle, Sarah Karen, Antonia Luxem, Megan Metcalf, Dipesh Pandya, Lizzy Rose, Elinor Stanley, Tom Verity, Anna Wachsmuth, Louise Webb and Melanie Wheeler, as well as Chloe Ashley, Gail Benjamin, Susie McClymont, Sara Trillo, among other participants.

From January to April 2018, alongside Marguerite Humeau and her guests Maki Suzuki (artist and designer), Dr. Philip Gore (embalmer), Lucia Stuart (forager and botanist), Owen Watson (architect), Juliette Rambaud (exhibition designer) and Sophie Mallett (artist), the group of artists went on a quest to re-humanise humankind…

On the first day, they were asked the riddle: “What are the forces that govern your lives, that you think might die, yet you would like to keep alive?” The group came up with five forces: shame, empathy, in/sanity, dysfunction and touch. Those were embodied through forms including sound, sculpture and writing, presented on Saturday 21 April on the occasion of a public event, and have since been decomposing and spreading to become protective forces.

At 12pm, members of the public joined us for the last mile of our quest along Botany Bay, where the beach was transformed into a score made of sounds, objects and sequences. The journey along the Bay lasted 45 min.

This event was made possible through support from Arts Council England and Fluxus.

View documentation of the overall project here.