The exhibition Powerful Tides was an important showcase for Chatham Historic Dockyard commissioned to celebrate its four hundred years anniversary. The research for the exhibition was extensive and was carried out by Wainwright to choose artists from the late seventeenth century to the twenty-first century that had a connection to the Thames Estuary and Chatham Historic Dockyard. Wainwright’s previous exhibition Ship to Shore: Art and the Lure of the Sea enabled her to build on her knowledge of shipping.
The River Medway was initially used as a safe anchorage for Tudor warships from 1547. During the reign of Elizabeth I, a dockyard was established further up the River Medway in the late 1560s to build and repair the “Queen’s Majesty’s Ships”. However, the need to expand and improve facilities led to the relocation of the Dockyard to its present site by 1618. The Dockyard expanded to keep up with the demand for ships, changing the surrounding landscape and river forever. Many of the historic works in the exhibition provided a romantic perception in relation to ship construction or their roles at sea. This is contrasted with how the River Medway and the sea are perceived by current artists. Wainwright's relationship with galleries, museums and artists enabled her to loan a number of important paintings, and works of art. Included in the exhibition was work by Christiane Baumgartner, John Constable, Layla Curtis, Tracey Emin, Nadav Kander, Anselm Kiefer, Steffi Klenz, Langlands & Bell’s, Chris Orr, Eric Ravilious, Yinka Shonibare MBE, J.M.W Turner, Norman Wilkinson, Richard Wilson, William Wyllie, and Catherine Yass. Rare manuscripts and maps were loaned from the British Museum.
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