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EXHIBITION

Sounding the Intertidal Thames
NIA BO
7-28 November 2026

SOLO EXHIBITION
Artist: Nia Bo
7-28 November 2026

Opening: 7 November 2026 | 6.30 - 9pm

EXHIBITION TEXT

PRESS RELEASE

Sounding the Intertidal Thames is a multidisciplinary project that examines the estuary as a site of continuous material, ecological and acoustic transformation. Against the backdrop of rising sea levels, the project draws attention to processes of gradual environmental change that often remain beyond the threshold of human perception.

Developed through fieldwork across three locations along the Thames (Hoo Peninsula in Kent, South Bank in central London, Barnes in west London), the project positions the estuary as an active participant in the making of the artworks. Through experimental photographic processes, field recording and listening practices, Nia Bo investigates the estuary as a dynamic assemblage of organisms, materials and environmental forces.

The exhibition brings together a nine-metre-long artwork, three sound compositions and an artist’s book, articulating the research through material experimentation, sound composition and participatory listening practices.

01 — Intertidal Strata

Cyanotype, soil chromatography, estuarine waters, soils and plant matter on silk.

900 × 90 cm

Through direct contact with river water, sediment, plant matter, sunlight, time and chemical reactions, the work combines experimental photographic and chromatographic processes across nine metres of silk.
Comprising three sections of three metres each, the work corresponds to the three fieldwork locations.

The resulting surfaces act as indexical traces of the estuary, making visible the agency of its materials. Left chemically unfixed, the work remains responsive to light, atmospheric humidity and the passage of time. Its material transformation continues beyond the moment of its making.

02 — Soundscapes

Three electroacoustic compositions

Developed from field recordings across the three sites, the compositions investigate the estuary’s complex acoustic environments.

Underwater movements, subterranean vibrations, resonances within trees and industrial structures, birds, amphibians and aircraft sounds are recorded with conventional microphones, hydrophones, geophones and contact microphones. Through progressive layering and sonic manipulation, the recordings move towards abstraction, evoking speculative futures for the estuary.

The Rising Tide, Kent, 7:53

Set within the spring soundscape of the Hoo Peninsula in Kent, where industrial activity meets the powerful waters of the estuary, The Rising Tide imagines a gradual descent beneath the water’s surface. Metallic impacts reverberate through the water as the calls of gulls and other seabirds become increasingly distorted and distant. The composition builds a sense of disorientation and impending drowning, evoking the unsettling prospect of a landscape gradually submerged by rising sea levels.

Under Tension, South Bank, 8:12

Set within the dense urban soundscape of the South Bank, Under Tension explores the vibrations and resonances of the river’s infrastructure. Footsteps reverberate through metal bridges, water strikes the structures along the river, and subterranean vibrations reveal an acoustic environment beneath the city’s surface. The wind whistles through the rigging of moored sailing boats, its increasingly insistent presence taking on the quality of a warning. As familiar urban sounds become distorted and unstable, the composition imagines a future in which the forces of the estuary challenge the apparent permanence of the city’s infrastructure.

Resurgence, Wetlands in Barnes, 10:14

Set within the late-summer wetlands of Barnes, Resurgence layers and transforms recordings of reedbed birds, frogs and the subtle sounds of water at low tide. Distorted droning aircraft sounds foreshadow the increasingly intrusive presence of planes approaching Heathrow. As water surges and wildlife intensifies, the mechanical presence is gradually overwhelmed. The composition closes with vibrations recorded from within a tree, bringing an otherwise inaudible presence to the foreground and imagining a different order of acoustic presence.

03 — The Estuary Scores

Three electroacoustic compositions

The Estuary Scores comprises 24 site-responsive listening scores organised into three sequences: Encounter, Entanglement and Parting.

Conceived as a series of rituals, the scores engage listening as an embodied, relational practice, foregrounding attention, reciprocity and the agency of the estuary’s many bodies.

Extending beyond the exhibition, the book invites readers to establish their own relationships with intertidal environments through gestures of listening, observation and care.

NIA BO

www.niaboart.com

Nia Bo (Stefania Boiano) is an Italian-born artist based in London.

Her site-responsive practice engages with landscapes in states of transformation, with a particular interest in liminal environments.

Through alternative photographic processes, sound and moving image she works in direct contact with the environment to create sensory encounters that invite us to experience the agency of the more-than-human world and question the boundaries between ourselves and the places we inhabit.

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