Whether thundering down from the sky, dripping out of leaky taps, or leaving every building vaguely damp, at times water can feel a bit too ubiquitous in the UK. In fact, most Britons would likely tell you that they spend most of their day trying to avoid the wet, rather than embrace it. But for Cecilia Byrne, water is a precious resource to be celebrated. Her verve for the stuff even led her to found Endless Rhythm, a company which produces water-purifying ceramic vessels.
Titled Project Water, her upcoming exhibition at Dover Street Market London features her vessels and a series of images by her partner, artist and fashion photographer Jamie Hawkesworth, that highlight water’s value. Giving even the grumpiest waterlogged Brit pause, all proceeds from the print sales will go to The Cycle, which provides sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene services as well as menstrual health education to women and girls in India.
“That appreciation for water and the element of giving back always felt like it should naturally be embedded in the culture of Endless Rhythm, because water is all about taking and giving,” explained Byrne, whose ten-year long fascination with water was borne out of her time working on a biodynamic farm. There, she was exposed to the ideas of Austrian philosopher and founder of anthroposophy Rudolf Steiner, which permanently altered the way she viewed water.
“They had this biodynamic practice, which involves collecting rainwater in a barrel and swirling it for 40 minutes in one direction, which is order, and then in the other direction, which is chaos,” Byrne said. “Then you spray that water across all the crops and it creates a really high vibe for them, this water protects them and helps them flourish. I became obsessed with this water out of all the things that I took away from my experience in biodynamic farming.”
Byrne lightheartedly concedes it can all veer into the “woo-woo”. Going down a research rabbit hole, at first she was confronted by plenty of esoteric New Age mysticism that teetered into the fantastical. But then she discovered the work of bioengineer Gerald Pollack, who documented a fourth phase of water, and Austrian forest scientist Viktor Schauberger, who developed water purification systems. Their scientific findings supported her curiosity about the structure of water. After all, water is a conductor of electricity – who’s to say it can’t take on metaphysical energy, too?
Endless Rhythm was the end result of her findings. Hand-thrown and slip-cast ceramics glazed in dusty pinks, mustard yellows, and ocean blues use gravity to filter water through charcoal and minerals, distilling it down to a purer form. Hawkesworth says he’s no water filtration expert. “My involvement with Endless River is I’m just a pair of eyes. If Cecilia ever wants my opinion I give it to her – but only if she wants it,” laughed the photographer. But when Byrne asked him to join the exhibition, images he took in Kashmir, India, felt like the perfect fit.
Through his warm, gauzy lens, the eight images capture two boys fishing plastic water bottles out of Lake Dal. Rowing around the lake, Hawkesworth happened upon the boys and asked to take their picture. “It’s funny because sometimes, particularly when you’re in transitional places, like a lake where everybody’s moving around, some people want to chat and others are busy doing what they’re doing,” Hawkesworth explained. “Those kids, for example, were messing around in the water, collecting these bottles. They didn’t want to talk to me, they wanted to just carry on playing around. Once I took their picture, they jumped back in the water straight away, and I didn’t even get to speak to them.”
“I think that, for me, is the joy of portraiture. Sometimes you know things about people, sometimes you don’t. You have this sort of relationship for a couple of seconds, and then they’re off in their life again,” he said.
From an aquaphobic Londoner to a gleeful kid splashing around in a lake, water is a great connector. After all, it makes up roughly 60 per cent of every body. Project Water emphasises that, whether captured in a photograph or kept in a jug, water – especially if it’s safe to drink – is something to be cherished.
Project Water is on show at Dover Street Market London from 29 November – 1 December 2024, and at Programme Paris from 13 – 31 December 2024.