I started digging into my ‘ideas bank’. And one river came to mind: the Irwell. I have a profound interest in rivers, they mean so many things; I’m drawn to them for their immortality and physical journeys. In 2009/10 I did the River Ribble project as a way to explore how we portray nature subjectively. Meanwhile, my ongoing project The Yangtze River explores the relationship between nature and culture in contemporary China. I had come close to the Irwell before that am aware that it’s different river. Having contributed much to the Industrial Revolution in Manchester area, the Irwell was one of the most polluted rivers in the country. While the Ribble has only slightly been industrialised and the Yangtze is being transformed, the Irwell is on the third stage: it has been completely tamed and apparently it has been given back a life in recently years.

It’ll be good to walk the Irwell as a way to observe how a true post-industrial river is like. The plan is to do it in the same way to the Ribble---I’ll divide the river into several equal sections and walk along it. I’ll do something at each exact dividing points. Last time I took photos at each dividing points on the Ribble, but I always had a question about how well we can ‘represent’ a river. So, this time I’m going to take a bottle of water from each dividing points. No photography as planned, and it’s local. Perhaps the water can form some artwork and can also feed the soybeans.

(Image: A Peacock butterfuly along the River Irwell.)