A new exhibition, A Simultaneous Agreement, by Stanley Picker Fellow's FRAUD is opening at the Stanley Picker Gallery in Kingston on Wednesday, 22 April from 6pm - 8pm .

A Simultaneous Agreement is an exhibition of Stanley Picker Fellow FRAUD (Audrey Samson and Francisco Gallardo) latest body of work which centres on the circulation of nutrients and infrastructures permeating the current UK water crisis. 

Examining the intimacy between the fertiliser mine and the sewerage treatment plant, the project asks, "when minerals move across the earth what do they bring with them?"

Like most English rivers, the Hogsmill, which flows either side of the Stanley Picker Gallery, contains dangerous levels of chemical substances stemming from agricultural run-off and sewage overflow. 

Water - the stuff of life - now also harbours unevenly distributed violence through toxic pollutants. 

Through art and design-based approaches, rooted in spatial advocacy, the project aims to unravel the complexity of corporate, financial and governmental interests that have led to wide-scale water degradation.

As part of the exhibition, a glass fountain, titled 'Saharan Rock, under Panama Soil, in South African Waters', will filter Hogsmill river water with activated charcoal. 

The sculpture's path through the gallery charts the path of the NM Cherry Blossom - a bulk carrier ship carrying contested phosphate rock from the Sahara to East Asia. 

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In doing so, it traces the recirculation of phosphate rock via sediments which build (and unbuild) worlds as they move from the shallow bench of the mine to the port warehouse and from South African tribunals to industrial farmland.

The exhibition will host a consultation and public campaign to make the nearby Hogsmill River swimmable, using the Environment Agency's bathing request legislation as a tool for considering the intimacy with nutrients as pollutants, from their extraction and production to their re-circulation in water bodies (both human and non-human).

While activated charcoal purifies water, the material's internal pore networks are adsorbing (not dissolving) contaminants. 

This economy of accumulation and abatement shifts the harm, pointing to problematic 'scalable solutions' which fuel the green / circular economy. 

Equally, charcoal shares ties with conflict finance, where its geopolitics sit upstream, sometimes linked to deforestation, biopiracy and illicit trade, and once made commodity, its movement intersects with security regimes and militarisation.

Included in the exhibition are 'A New Alchemy', which are wearable activated charcoal sculptures. These garments seal the skin from interaction with the surrounding environment which will allow the wearer to enter the polluted river. 

The costume forms part of 'Standing for the River', a performance choreographed by Neus Gil Cortés event, which is taking place  on 12 June and will become part of the evidence required for the submission to request bathing site designation. 

The river is recognised as polluted by residents and swarms of midges (chironomids), which now populate its banks. 

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However it is also a rare chalk stream which is enjoyed by many, including birdwatchers, fishermen, dog walkers, and species such as the Elephant Hawk-mot, Common Frogs and herbaceous plants.

For the duration of the show, the gallery will become a consultation space in which these activities will unfold, to act as a catalyst for collaborations with communities in the surrounding catchment area.