SUPERSEVERN 1.0 | 1 May – 21 May 2026

Supersevern 1.0
1 May – 21 May 2026

SuperSevern Symposium: Tuesday 12 May, 5pm–7pm

SuperSevern 1.0 is an exhibition of research and artists’ responses to the River Severn, an exceptional super-river. It has an astonishing tidal range and sees an immense daily confluence of fresh and saltwater, uniquely shaping its wider geographical region.

The exhibition in Elwes Gallery brings material objects, visual and sound-based works together to offer personal, collective and imagined narratives, allowing multiple ways of knowing the river to coexist. Past objects and mythic stories become tools for imagining future responses, suggesting how we learn from the river through making, unmaking and re-making as an ongoing process.

University of Gloucestershire researchers Jean Boyd, Katie Forrester and Susie Olczak have worked collaboratively with the Museum of Gloucester since early 2025 on the development of this exhibition, visiting the museum’s archives and The Folk of Gloucester heritage building.

Join us on Tuesday 12th May from 4pm–5pm for a special sound installation in Elwes Gallery, and from 5pm–7 pm for the SuperSevern Symposium with exhibiting artists chaired by UoG curator, Sarah Bowden. We will be joined by Sarah Rhys, an interdisciplinary artist whose interest in ‘design anthropology’ investigates the way rivers have influenced their geographical formation and specificity. The presentations and Q&A will take place in lecture theatre C007 at Park Campus. Please book to secure your place, free-of-charge, by emailing [email protected].

Exhibiting artists and researchers:

Jean Boyd is a Senior Lecturer at UoG and a researcher. She uses writing, curatorial and visual practices to reconsider acts of classification and archiving in knowledge production.

Marko Dutka is a Doctoral researcher at the University of Gloucestershire and a photographer using lens and non-lens-based media in the exploration of landscape, the nature of perception and reality, memory and loss.

Katie Forrester’s illustration practice draws on themes of narrative theory, nature, and folk and fairytale traditions.

Tim Johnston is a composer and researcher making music which crosses stylistic boundaries between Anglo-Welsh folk music, popular and contemporary Classical music. Tim is a lecturer in music at the University of Salford.

Susie Olczak is a Senior Lecturer at UoG. She is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on sculpture. Her work considers ideas of contingent making and adaptation in relation to climate change.

Tom Spooner is an artist with an interest in place, memory, and nature, working with observational drawing. Tom is a lecturer on the BA Illustration course at the UoG.