Tilbury Bridge Walkway of Memories is an art and sound installation conceived by Artist EVEWRIGHT. It is the first site-specific art and sound installation to be held at the Port of Tilbury in Essex and the UK dedicated to people of the Windrush Generation.
It is an immersive visual art experience, installed on 432 panes of glass collaged with photographs, documents, original boat passenger tickets and memorabilia. The artwork is installed in an original passenger walkway 55 metres long. As you walk through, you can listen to audio stories about the lives of some of the elders whose images are featured in the installation.
Tilbury Port is an iconic location which has an historic significance to the black community in Britain. This artwork is a unique statement memorialising the lives of those people who came from the Caribbean who carried their British passports proudly as British citizens with hope and expectation. They passed through this location as one of the original walkways where SS Empire Windrush passengers, in 1948 arrived. Although many arrived before 1948, those that arrived here were the first large post war wave of British colonial citizens to disembark from the passenger ship at Tilbury Cruise Terminal.
This installation features over 130 people from the Windrush era and their families through photographs, documents and audio, telling stories in their own words of their arrival, the lives and families they created and their contribution to British society. This artwork and soundscape are symbolic and a testimony to those that arrived on SS Empire Windrush and the many that followed that journey to the UK.
This artwork is the fourth in a series of site-specific work created by artist EVEWRIGHT who developed the original Caribbean Takeaway Takeover an installation originally staged in Colchester, Essex in 2018, who took over and transformed S&S Caribbean Takeaway. The idea was to create an innovative and engaging art and sound installation in an informal setting owned and controlled by the Caribbean community.
We value the importance of our community telling their stories in their own voices. This installation shows how public spaces can be repurposed to share our stories and reach people in new and innovative ways. It challenges perceptions of where art can be experienced and enjoyed.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Dedicated to the memory of Clarice Agatha Reid (3 Feb 1935 -10 April 2020) and Don Sydney (14 Dec 1940 - 7 July 2020) and the many loved ones from the Windrush Generation who has left a lasting legacy for future generations. Special thanks to the many people from Essex and across the United Kingdom who contributed their family’s images and audio stories.
