The Hoo Peninsula shelters the river Medway, forming a buffer and distinctive territory on the Thames Estuary; the wide ridge at the core of the peninsula is a solid backbone flanked by vast open grazing marshes to the West and the more secluded wetlands of Yantlet Creek to the east. Beyond that, the Isle of Grain seems separate and remote, despite the constant stream of heavy lorries on the A228 to service the industry and container terminal there. It is a large-scale, exposed rural landscape, where domestic, rather than ‘urban’ villages and open farmlands are juxtaposed with expansive coastal marshes and clusters of huge industrial buildings and military ruins.
Le Rêve de Newton, filmed on location in the nature reserve of the Grain Tower, Northward Hill, Cliffe Pools… in what Charles Dickens described as a “dark flat wilderness intersected with mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it”, is delGado’s poetic reflection on ageing, vulnerability and the changing landscape as well as an exploration of the politics of sport and the body.
Working alongside with the writer Pauline St Marie, he has produced a piece in which text & image collaborate to create a narrative dialogue concerning energy & power; health & longevity; disability & ability; death & decay. We see nature, wildlife and old buildings, places abandoned that have fallen into disrepair.
The artist described the work as a “journey into a landscape that emanates with the mystery of a story to be unfolded”. In the work the gleam of the lights from a smoky factory punctuate the imminence of dawn; the delicacy of the grass swaying in the wind and the haunting presence of the Grain Tower, the rhythmic seagulls’ flight mesmerise us alongside with the words of a senior cyclist who wanders around the woods and seems to come to what will be his final race.
