11/06/2026
Our studio photo of vapes, dredged from the River Kent.
The recent 'Our River Kent' exhibition at Kendal Museum was supposed to include a collection of discarded Vapes, dredged from the river by Simon Raven and his band of litter warriors.
We tipped 40 or so of these vapes into a transparent 'tank'. Damien Hurst eat your heart out!
It became clear (forgive the pun) that we couldn't show the actual items.
It was the smell; a mixture of what you might expect from items left on the riverbed and the sickly sweet smells of traces of their contents.
If we could smell them then that meant that museum visitors would be passive va**ng.
If we could smell them that means the trace contents have been leaching out into the river.
Vapes must be just about the worst thing found in the river. Contents toxic to the delicate ecosystem, plastics being ground down and entering the food chain, toxic metals from the batteries.
We decided to take away the vapes and create a studio photograph to show the potential harm.
Here is the result. we used string lights during a long exposure to create the feel of flowing water but also smoke trails.
(The vapes have been disposed of by returning to a shop for recycling.)
Why have these vapes been thrown into the river?
How can we persuade people to stop doing this?
Ideas welcome.
