On Saturday 1st February, Babylon Gallery opened their new environmental exhibition, ‘Submerged’ and invited visitors to create their own creatures to add to the underwater scene.
The gallery had over 130 visitors in the first weekend and with submissions from local schools, including the art club at Ely St. Mary’s Junior School and Ely College, the shoal of river creatures swimming through the gallery has quickly grown.
The environmental exhibition invites visitors to imagine that the gallery has been submerged, including an underwater installation made using recycled materials such as plastic drinks bottles (that will be recycled afterwards), information from the ‘Fen Project’ provided by the Environment Agency and poetry from one of the Fenland Poet Laureate Award winners, Kim Allen.
Kim's parents, who live in South Wales made the long journey to Ely to see their daughter's poem as part of the Submerged exhibition.
Terri, Kim's mum commented "With a background in science Kim always evaluates and presents a reasoned argument. Kim’s poem reflects her caring nature, using her insight of what could happen in the future. Kim and her husband relocated from Central London 10 years ago, specifically to create their home in The Fens and realise their dream of having a smallholding for livestock and the growing of plants and vegetables.
Growing up in Cowbridge, the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales, gave Kim her background love of nature, and the outdoors."
She added "As a family we realise 'Home' for Kim now is enjoying the serenity, flat landscape and giant skies of The Fenlands. Congratulations Kim on capturing the essence of present day concerns in your poem."
Read more about the exhibition in the article by Spotted in Ely here.