Back in 2007, Bristol-based artists Kayle Brandon and Heath Bunting were making really interesting work together, including exploring the cities in different ways. One of these was the Avon Canoe Pilot project, which had many strands: sport, trying to get a Blue Flag for the Harbour, dredging rubbish, clearing a jetty, swimming… all of which sound wholesome, but were done in incredibly subversive ways.
I read about this project on their joint website, and I was fascinated. It made me wonder why I never see people on the Avon, only vehicles; to question my own relationships with the water; and it inspired me to start to push my own boundaries of how I relate to the water. I was really happy they agreed to come on the podcast and talk more about why they were doing, how and why.
To find more about the various projects we discussed and more work relating to the water, follow the links:
- The Avon Canoe Pilot portal, and the PDF of the booklet they made about it
- The Bristol Blue Flag project and
- Dredging in the Harbour
- The Canoe ferry jetty
- The Disco Canoe
- Heath’s Avon Wild Swimming event
There are lots more projects that Heath and Kayle worked on as the DUO Collective, on their website.
There’s more information about Kayle, including a list of works, bio and CV here.
Heath’s information is here, and you can also check out his wikipedia page and the Tate page about his A Terrorist – a status project and Tate video interview about that, and his BorderXing project.
All images are from the Avon Canoe Pilot Project booklet, and are used with kind permission of Kayle Brandon and Heath Bunting.
Avon Stories 