Artist Tegen Kimbley is currently exhibiting work in the BCN Assembly 2025 exhibition Nothing Gold Can Stay - alongside fellow Black Country artists, Mia Banks and Mandeep Dillon - which is on display at New Art Gallery Walsall until 9 November 2025. Below you can read about Tegen's experience in her own words.
From College Project to Gallery Wall: The Journey of Whispering Reeds
Receiving the commission from Multistory and having the opportunity to exhibit at The New Art Gallery Walsall has been an incredible experience. It has allowed me to expand my practice into moving image, something I’ve wanted to explore for a long time, and it has given me the confidence to keep going in that direction. The support from both Multistory and the team at the gallery has been amazing throughout. Seeing the work finally come together in the space was a moment of real pride.
Whispering Reeds began in 2014 as part of my final major project while I was studying Photography at Stafford College. I’d always hoped to return to the work one day, but the timing never seemed quite right until now. The project is part of a personal body of work about my father and his boat. We spent many years sailing together on the Norfolk Broads as a family, and this work reflects the emotional relationship between a man and his boat, as well as the challenges that come with it.
This new version of Whispering Reeds includes an existing photographic series, archival material and a new film, commissioned by Multistory in partnership with The New Art Gallery Walsall. Together, they explore different kinds of loss: the loss of youth, of the boat, and of the freedom that sailing once offered.
At eighteen, while putting together this work for my college project, I never imagined I’d one day be showing it in a gallery like this. It really has been a "pinch me" moment.
Although the themes might sound a little heavy, the process of making the film was full of joy. My father and I had a great time working on it together, even if he didn’t always love the fact that it has no dialogue. He also wasn’t too happy that I didn’t show the whole of his beloved boat, but he’s been an honest and good-humoured critic.
This commission gave me the opportunity to bring moving image into my practice for the first time. Whispering Reeds felt like the perfect place to start, especially as I was able to include personal archive material, such as family VHS footage from our time spent on the boat. It added a new dimension to the story and helped carry the emotional thread through the film.
My dad and I planned our filming trip to the Norfolk Broads in detail, keeping a close eye on the weather as if we were chasing storms. We filmed over three or four days in March earlier this year. Spring was just beginning to appear, but the air was still cool and the skies had that grey, wintry tone I was hoping for. It worked perfectly with the muted colour palette I had in mind.
The season also gave us some unexpected gifts. The birds were louder, which meant I could record their songs more clearly. The wind helped too, adding that soft, rustling sound of the reeds that surround the Broads. It created a soundscape that really captures the atmosphere of the place. It’s honestly a landscape unlike anything I’ve experienced elsewhere.
During the shoot, I also spent a lot of time walking around the boatyards and along the waters edges, where we’d spent time as children with my sound recording equipment, collecting field recordings or my environment. I was recording everything from the rustling of reeds, to the lapping of water, and the distant clanging of sailboat rigging which, as a child, used to send me to sleep. I probably looked a bit odd to the locals, wandering around with headphones on, pointing a microphone around, but these quiet, ambient sounds became an important part of the film’s texture. They helped bring the sense of place to life, and allowed me to reflect the quieter, more meditative aspects of time spent around boats.
Whispering Reeds will also be presented as part of Coventry Biennial 2025, Obsessions, Possessions, this Autumn in Coventry.