Notes from the second part of our Water Collab

This project is by Vicky White and Viv King. It is the second part of our Water Collaboration. The blog post will be similar for both of us, but each will write our own reflection.

These were our notes prior to meeting up.

Thinking about immersing ourselves in the water, each with our angel wings.

How do we live in a relationship that both sustains and overwhelms us?

Traditionally angels are messengers or guardians, however our wings intend to suggest a freedom and vulnerability, the desire to transcend the human body.

Physically forming our own wings is important because the construction becomes part of ourselves and not merely an inherited trait. We are entering the water as a powerful reversal, not ascending to heaven but descending to an earthy element, not escaping our world but immersing ourselves in it.

The wings become less a symbol of divinity and more about surrender and acceptance. Our baptism in a body of water equalises- questions of religion, and environmental concerns which are all temporarily suspended once we are immersed.

The water is an active participant, we are entering its space, adapting our movement which we cannot fully control.

The collaboration is about both our relationships with water, spiritually, ecologically and bodily and to enter its space is to recognise our dependence on it and an inability to fully possess it or control it.

Our bodies enter not to conquer or perform within it but to acknowledge destructive and holy human interactions and the power of mother nature. The wings suggest transcendence, proposing that transformation can occur on Earth through deeper immersion within it.

The making of my wings.

***

Today, 20th August 2026, Vicky and I worked together on the second part of our Water Collaboration Project. Separately we had each made a pair of angel wings. Mine were linked to my Above and Below series and Vicky’s linked to her art practice relating to religious iconography.

Our journey began as a trial 500 metre swim for both of us, testing the water and our buoyancy using a foam noodle. We both brought our premade wings to the lake and experimented with different ways of attaching them to the noodle, to showcase them at their best. Vicky attached her wings using string and clipped them centrally on her halter swim top. I attached mine using cable ties.

We worked out a plan for filming, again it was too windy to fly the drone, and the weather was very showery. Some photos and video footage were taken from the raised deck, while others were filmed from the pontoon at water level.

As the water is deep, we needed to be as safe as possible, so we also wore fins. The noodles were positioned quite high on our bodies to ensure that the wings were held in the correct position. However, this meant that the noodles provided less buoyancy and made the swimming more of a challenge.

We also experimented with life jackets around our waists, but these were too visible in the shots and distracted from the appearance of the wings, so we decided to abandon this idea.

Our thoughts for the journey were as follows:

1. Stills out of the water, together, capturing the wings and our connection as artists and friends, before entering the water.
2. Swimming side by side, filming both above and on the water level.
3. Swimming together in a 360-degree rotation, representing how water is intertwined with our humanity, everyday life and reflecting on our profound dependence on it.

The materials we used to construct the wings were a combination of natural, recycled and man-made.

Vicky’s wings were made using natural feathers sprayed gold, lace, scraps of various voile fabrics and raw unbleached fabrics and thread. The silver elements were created by using strips from a foil emergency blanket, all attached to a 2 mm lightweight foam base.

My wings were constructed from a 5 mm poly board, recycled water bottles, unbleached raw cotton, raw thread fishing net and natural feathers. I used ochre and blue paint.

Reflection

I felt both the sets of angel wings carried such angelic form as well as creating contrast through our different artistic references as well as their distinctiveness of our individual practices.

There was tension between function and symbolism. Wings traditionally imply flight, freedom and transience, while the water is limited by weight and physicality. Bringing the two together created escape with transcendence making us very much grounded in the water.

The artistic connection Vicky and I share is important to our relationship and our practices. We committed to this one day to being a success and we had one opportunity to make this work, regardless of the weather. We both had a real sense of commitment to make this happen.

We both felt it was a huge success, including the rain which just added to the frame. We were genuinely thrilled with the outcome, not only the still images but also the short videos of our journey.

Seeing the work exist in both forms, the stills holding the constructed quality of the wings as well as the moving images capturing the physicality, instability and presence of the open water.

Our human dependence on water and the increasingly unstable relationship we have with our environment, water is essential for our survival as a human race. However it’s destructiveness through flooding, rising water levels and these extreme weather conditions we are experiencing (August 2026), can threaten and overwhelm us.

After weeks of dry weather, it showered heavily on the day. The rain became an integral part of the work. Rather than working round it, it brought a sense of immediacy to the process, physically working with the wider environment was suddenly quite demanding, always questioning our relationship with it and our dependance on it.

The work brings together our physical dependance on water, our vulnerability to environmental and climate change and the spiritual associations of the angelic form. The wings suggest the possibility of escape but the weight of the water brings us back to the body, the environment and the fundamental reality that us as humans can not exist without it.

The final videos….two versions.

Credit should be given to my daughter for filming everything under very precise instructions. We couldn’t have achieved this without her.