The exhibition takes you on a journey through a three dimensional mind-map of sculptures, audiovisual displays, medical hardware and archival materials. Featuring maps, models and measurements of the River Thames alongside cutting-edge diagnostic ‘phantoms’ (specialist machines rarely seen outside of a hospital or laboratory which are used to calibrate medical imaging equipment and analyse fluid dynamics within the body), it draws parallels between extraordinary feats of civil engineering and the intricate inner workings of the human body, suggesting a correlation between revolutionary urban and medical innovations in the way they measure, process and predict mysterious natural and bodily phenomena.
Looking to the past and future sewage systems that keep London clean and its population healthy, Hawser charts attempts throughout the ages to reclaim the Thames as a space for leisure, rather than industry, from Joseph Bazalgette’s 19th century sewer system to the Thames Tideway ‘Super Sewer’ project.
