EXHIBITION
The Thames and anti-monument ｜泰晤士河与反纪念碑
Installation
Soy wax
Variable size & duration
2025
Soy wax
Variable size & duration
2025
The first Thames Head monument was established in 1854, inscribed with: “the stone placed here to mark the source of the River Thames”. Humans stacked stones into an 18cm hollow cairn to mark the source location.
Following the Thames Path, I located the second source of the Thames, also marked as “Source of the River Thames” on Google Maps—this is the origin of the riverbed. Here, stones were piled into a 10cm low embankment to remark the source position.
Continuing along the dry riverbed, I discovered the third source at a damaged low bridge, merely one meter high. This is the physical origin where trickling streams gathered into a pond. Two months later, returning to this site, the flowing water had vanished. Tracing the riverbed paved with white pebbles until it extended beneath a highway culvert, no flowing water remained. I wish to believe it still exists elsewhere, but it is no longer here…
The dissolution of a river’s source is irreversible. Humans attempt to mark origins through monuments, yet rivers—as untamable natural entities—resist control by singular ideologies or governance structures.I collected stones used to mark the source locations from the riverbed and replicated their forms using natural soybean wax. Finally, I returned these wax replicas to the site, placed them at the river’s origin, then ignited them. They melted, solidified, and eventually dissipated…
第一座泰晤士河源头纪念碑在1854年建立，上面写着“the stone placed here to mark the source of the River Thames”, 人类用石头围成一个高18cm的石堆，中间是空心的，它被来标记源头的位置。
我沿着Thames path找到第二处泰晤士河源头，这里也是泰晤士河河床的源头，它在谷歌地图上被标记为“Source of the River Thames”。人类用数块石头堆砌起10cm高的小堤，以此来重新标记源头的位置。
我继续沿着干涸的河床行走，找到了第三处泰晤士河源头，这是一座已经破损的矮桥，离地仅有1米高，这里是物理意义上的源头，涓涓细流在里汇集成了潭水。此后两个月我再次来到这里，活水却消失了，我顺着铺满白色鹅卵石的河床继续行走，直到河床介入人类边界，它蔓延到公路下的桥洞中都再没有发现一点活水。我想相信它还存在，但它已不在这里了…
河流源头的消解是不可逆的，人类企图通过纪念碑来标记源头，但河流作为 “不可驯服 ”的自然环境，它往往不受单一意识形态或管理结构的控制。我收集了数块河床源头用来标记源头位置的石头，用天然的大豆蜡去制作它们的形态。最终，我将蜡石重新带回现场，摆置在河床的源头，点燃，融化，凝固，最后消解...
“As I sit by the old Thames canal, the breeze blowing gently, my thoughts race.
I guess I still can't believe that the sources of the rivers that made the British Empire what it was are so small and insignificant.
They are marked by a 10cm embankment of stones of various sizes, proof that the source of the Thames once existed.
A river of blood and ambition, and the centre of past human history.
I wonder if it could have realised that?”
The diminution of the source of the river is irreversible.
Time, eventually, will reduce all symbols to silent stones.
I guess I still can't believe that the sources of the rivers that made the British Empire what it was are so small and insignificant.
They are marked by a 10cm embankment of stones of various sizes, proof that the source of the Thames once existed.
A river of blood and ambition, and the centre of past human history.
I wonder if it could have realised that?”
The diminution of the source of the river is irreversible.
Time, eventually, will reduce all symbols to silent stones.
Promise
The Poster of Walking Like River
View Map
Walking Like River
Color video
53′10′′
Thames Head
Cotswold
UK
2025
Color video
53′10′′
Thames Head
Cotswold
UK
2025
Video Stills
This excerpt comes from our art project, Walking Like River, documenting our exploratory journey from Kemble Station to the source of the Thames in June.
June in the Cotswolds was much hotter than we had expected. It is the dry season at the river’s source: no trickling stream, no damp muddy earth. Instead, the riverbed was covered in pale patches of limestone, exposed and gently gleaming under the sun. We walked from the entrance toward the visible riverbed, where thick oat grasses had already overtaken the original path and banks. Descending from the grassy slope into the riverbed, our footsteps on the gravel beneath echoed sharply, drowning out conversations and bird songs alike. Gradually, we became submerged in an invisible current.
The film shows our path along this riverbed, characterized by the distinctive limestone topography of the English Cotswolds. This region lies along a limestone belt formed between the Ordovician and Jurassic periods. Thus, during the dry season, this "white riverbed" emerges like a skeleton left behind by retreating groundwater. The Thames originates from a typical karstic spring, and as summer lowers the groundwater level, the water itself "hides" beneath the surface, leaving only the exposed riverbed. Even when we reached the source, we saw merely a dried-up well.
At the Thames Head monument, we sat on the ground, turning the memories and sensory impressions of the preceding moments into an act of immediate "mapping." Lines flowed directly from our fingertips, little spoken, fully absorbed in sensation. Retracing our steps to the Thames' second seasonal source, we spotted from afar vivid white wax stones standing brightly amidst green grasses and rocks—a counter-monument. At the site, we lit them, allowing them to melt, flow, and solidify. On this old riverbed, past generations piled stones attempting to mark the exact position of the "source," striving to define a beginning. Yet nature, ever changing and alive, has never truly submitted to these fixed intentions. The ignited monument, in that instant, broke free from the chains of historical narratives and brought forth a new Thames...
这是我们位于泰晤士河源头的Walking like River艺术项目的片段，记录了我们在6月从Kemble火车站步行至泰晤士河源头的探索之旅。
六月的Cotswolds比我们预想的要炎热得多，六月是泰晤士河源头的枯水期，没有潺潺溪流，也没有湿润泥泞。源头的河床布满了一片片泛白的石灰岩河床，裸露在阳光下，微微泛光。我们一行人从入口步行至可见的河床，茂盛的燕麦草遮挡了原本的道路和堤岸，从草地下到河床里，走在河底碎石上，脚底的咔咔声盖过谈话、鸟鸣，我们逐渐被淹没在这不可见的湍流中。
影片中展现了我们在河床上行走的路径，这是属于英格兰Cotswolds地区特有的石灰岩地貌，这片区域属于奥陶纪至侏罗纪时期的石灰岩带（Limestone Belt），因而枯水期的“白河床”实际上是地下水消退后的“骨架”，泰晤士河是典型的喀斯特型泉眼发源地，夏季地下水位下降，泉水便“隐身”于地底，仅剩河床可见，行至源头也依旧只见那眼“枯井”。
在泰晤士河的纪念碑处，席地而坐，片刻前的记忆和五感印象的残留化作了这一刻的“制图”，线条从笔尖流淌出来，没有太多的交流，只是全身心地感受。回溯到泰晤士河的第二个季节性源头，远远望见白色的蜡石在绿草和岩石里极为鲜艳——反纪念碑——在现场点燃它们，任其融化、流淌、凝固。在这条旧河床上，过去的人类堆砌石头，企图标记“源头”的位置，用以确认某种开始。然而，自然作为一个变化的、有生命的存在，从未真正服从这些固定的意志。点燃的纪念碑在这一刻，挣脱了历史叙事的枷锁，实现了新的泰晤士河...