Ways of Water is a solo exhibition that explores water health through a focus on infrastructure, community and memory. Over centuries, water has been managed, worshipped, polluted, protected and celebrated. Individual, collective; public and private responses galvanise in times of environmental health crisis prompting new relationships and responsibilities toward what constitutes safe water. The exhibition tracks the specific implications and imaginaries both past and present that stem from the Sheffield cholera epidemic of 1832, which emerged as a result of unsanitary water conditions.

Working across film, photography, sound, sculpture and archives, artworks re-envision historic wells and monumental reservoir sites in Yorkshire and Derbyshire, exploring different scales and effects whilst juxtaposing sites of community action with larger water infrastructures. Within these sites and structures is a focus on memory and monuments. How do we remember past events, culturally? What objects, rituals and beliefs maintain personal and collective memories? How can the past inform future action? Water is central to human and planetary survival. As a crucial life-sustaining element for every living organism, it needs maintenance and care, as does remembrance. The exhibition highlights these themes and invites visitors to consider their relationship to water, memory and health across local and global scales. 

Ways of Water was commissioned by Sheffield Museums in partnership with Arts Catalyst.