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PROJECTS : waterworks 2025-2026
TREATMENT
Treatment #2 2026
Giclee print, painted polystyrene balls, dried seaweed, acrylic box frame 73cm x 61cm
Shown at Epigeal, the final show at Unit 2, London Road, 24-26 April 2026
In November 2025, approximately 10 tonnes of black plastic bio-beads were released into the marine environment following a failure at Southern Water's Eastbourne treatment site. They washed up at Camber Sands.
The environmental incident resulted in widespread pollution along the south coast, with the microplastic wastewater treatment pellets – toxic due to containing heavy metals including lead, arsenic, cadmium and strontium – threatening marine life.
The peppercorn sized pellets can persist for decades and are often mistaken for food by marine wildlife and birds. Clean-ups were conducted by local volunteers before Southern Water finally stepped up with special removal machines.
I wanted to record this episode in some way and contacted those involved in the clear-up (Strandliners & MP Helena Dollimore) to see if I could use the found beads in my work. But no, the beads were too toxic and in any case being used in evidence, so instead I used polystyrene balls that I dyed black. I then harvested some seaweed, sterilised and dried it and added it to the mix.
SOUTHERN WATER
Almost every day so far this year in 2026, I've received warnings from Surfers Against Sewage that Southern Water have dumped sewage in the sea locally.
Not only is this a regular occurence in Hastings, but in May 2024 an unmaintained pipe, located in a forest, burst, leaving half the town without water over one of the most important holiday periods of the year.
Hastings Council and newly appointed MP Helen Dollimore negotiated with Southern Water to pay compensation to all the homes and businesses affected. Almost a year later, some of those affected had still not received any recompense, whilst water bills in March 2025 rose by 26% for those with water meters and 52% for those without.
Previously, in October 2023, Hastings town centre was flooded for the second time that year (January 2023), following heavy rainfall. Apart from the weather, the primary cause of both floods was a defective manhole cover installed in 2019 and a critical lack of effective infrastructure (eg pumping failure).
Businesses were compensated for the October flood but not for January. 19 residential properties were evacuated in October, but only a few were compensated. Landlords were compensated but not tenants, many of whom did not have contents insurance. In some cases, tenants' homes were renovated, the rents increased and the tenants had to move out.
Southern Water is 62% owned by Australian company Macquarie, who used to own Thames Water (see below).
Treatment #1 2026
Giclee print, painted polystyrene balls, acrylic box frame 73cm x 61cm
DOLLS HOUSE (AFTER THE FLOOD)
Dolls House (After The Flood) 2025
Giclee print 136cm x 52cm with border
When my mother's home was flooded in 2014, one of the many items ruined was the dolls house built by my late father which had been played with by two generations of little girls.
See Real House (After the Flood) below and text about my mother's fight with Thames Water.
THAMES WATER
In 2015, when I lived in south east London, I had my own battle with Thames Water. The landlords of my building commenced major works that were to include replacement of waste pipes outside the building. Leaseholders were to be charged for this work. I argued that the pipes were outside the curtilage of our building and therefore Thames Water's responsibility. The surveyors who had drawn up the schedule of works denied this was the case. It took me over a year, with the help of the Consumer Council for Water, to get Thames Water to admit their drainage maps hadn't been updated since privatisation in 1989, and that the pipes and drains outside our building were indeed theirs to maintain.
Dolls House was shown framed in the group show Glimpse at Unit 2 St Leonards in June 2025 (right), and unframed in Traces at St Andrew's Mews in April 2025.
REAL HOUSE (AFTER THE FLOOD)
THAMES WATER
My late mother fought a decade long battle with Thames Water over constant sewage spills that came up via a manhole in her garden. In 2000, she was on the front page of the local newspaper, drawing attention to these spills. For years, after heavy rain, when the garden flooded, this was inevitably followed by tankers parked in the road outside, loudly pumping out the sewage all night long for days.
The local pumping station had not been upgraded to cope with new house building in the area. On privatisation in 1989, Thames Water was owned by German company RWE, then Australian company Macquarie, both of which failed to upgrade infrastructure whilst paying dividends to shareholders and huge salaries to their CEOs..
THE ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
Having made contact with other local campaigners, Mum believed the Environment Agencyhad failed to protect them – the EA had authorised the diversion of the River Jubilee (a Thames subsiduary) to protect Windsor Castle and its groundsand that had caused the flooding at Staines & Chertsey.I thought it a mad conspiracy theory at the time, but after the recent exposure of the EA's fraudulent activity, it seems entirely possible.
My mother lived near the Thames at Staines and in 2014 the river burst its banks; a very large area was flooded. With water rising to over a foot high in her home, she was rescued by firemen and for the next 8 months lived in a rental property until refurbishment of her home was completed. She never felt confident that the house would not flood again, and died a year later.
Real House uses snaps I took of my mother's house a day after she was evacuated and then two weeks later when the flood had subsided and clearance had begun. Mould was growing fast! The colour of Thames Water's logo seemed an appropriate hue.
Real House (After The Flood) 2025
Giclee print 73cm x 73cm with border
DIABOLICAL DATA
Diabolical Data 2025
10 x giclee prints each 38cm x 50.8cm
(Click to enlarge)
Diabolical Data carries figures from Surfers Against Sewage who provide data on the number of sewage spills and their duration caused by all the water companies in England and Wales. Other figures (such as CEO pay) have been gleaned from various other media sources. Many of the investors in most companies are Canadian, Australian or UK Pension Funds.
The most disappointing figures come from Welsh Water, which is the one company that is not-for-profit and has no shareholders, but which managed to spill the most! Not only that, but the recent Channel 4 docudrama Dirty Business reveals that the CEO responsible for the criminal activity of the Environment Agency, is now on the board of Welsh Water - Sir James Bevan. The move has drawn scrutiny from campaigners due to the 'revolving door' between environmental regulators and the industry.
For more on ownership see Logo Spills below.
SPILLS AND SPIN
Spills and Spin 2025
Acrylic paint and pen on canvas 99.5cm x 86.5cm
Spills and Spin is the third in a trilogy of same-sized paintings again uses the grid pattern appropriated from floor tiles found in the Hastings Observer building (see previous work, Gaza and Observed).
Spills and Spin attempts a critique of the water companies in England and Wales. It combines the William Morris wallpaper pattern Seaweed with visual data obtained from The Rivers Trust on the number of sewage spills there are and where. The latest annual data is from 2023 (although real-time live spills are recorded daily where there is monitoring).
Although Morris created his pattern in four different and subtle colourways, instead I used the colours of the water company logos to represent the different regions where sewage spills took place, with Morris's simple flower representing the spills great and small.
LOGO SPILLS
Spills data comes from The Rivers Trust.
