ALICE MAHONEY: WATER BODIES
Water Bodies brings together documentation from a series of participatory walks in and around Camborne, Cornwall.
This project follows a map of lost and existing water sites, and material experiments shaped by the town’s post-industrial landscape.
Led by artist Alice Mahoney with historian Jonny Davey, the walks traced speculative water cycles through Camborne, prompting participants to reflect on water’s role in local myth, industry, and transformation — from streams and mermaid carvings to vanished holy wells and underground watercourses.
Working with ceramic artist Rosanna Martin at Brickfield (a community brickworks based in a disused clay pit near St Austell), Mahoney used local clays and waste materials to create slips, glazes, and colours drawn from Camborne’s landscape. This research considers the cyclical and impermanent nature of the land, and how creative processes might help reconnect us with place, informing Mahoney’s forthcoming solo exhibition at Auction House, Redruth, in March 2026.
The accompanying map, developed with graphic designer Anje Jager, traces visible and hidden water sites, highlighting the layered relationships between Camborne’s landscape, industry, mythology, and memory.
Funded by Arts Council England and Camborne Town Council, Water Bodies explores how humans and water shape one another — a reciprocal, connected relationship that runs through bodies, land, and time.
