To coincide with the launch of Helen Cammock’s artwork On WindTides, The Line presents an exhibition of her film work The Lay Shaft Drive is Down and Swirling Eddies, Tender Breeze, a series of reproduced text-based artworks created by the local community.

The Lay Shaft Drive is Down reinterprets the artist’s spoken word and sung performance first staged here, at the House Mill, which was commissioned by The Line in 2023.

Using the mill buildings as a starting point, Cammock’s film considers their relationship to industry, waterways, migration, and colonialism and weaves together often overlooked radical histories.

Swirling Eddies, Tender Breeze showcases images of works made by local community groups in workshops and conversation with the artist. During these workshops, participants experimented with text and collage using the language, signs and symbols of everyday life to create art evoking the ecology, architecture, heritage and communities of the Lower Lea.

The work created by these groups will be presented one by one—changing on a monthly basis—in a cabinet by Cammock’s installation, creating a dialogue with the words on the bridge and allowing new meanings and interpretations to emerge.

These works are accompanied by a short film by Reece Straw, who has documented the creation and installation of On WindTides, Cammock’s large-scale text installation spanning a cable bridge over the River Lea, which connects the London Boroughs of Newham and Tower Hamlets.

Funded by Arts Council England and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts