Roni Horn (1955, New York) is an American artist who lives between New York and Reykjavik, Iceland. From an early age, and before her interest in the visual arts, Horn developed a passion for literature and philosophy and still sees her library has a core engine for her work. The practice of drawing is central and fundamental to her oeuvre, despite using other media, such as sculpture, photography and artist’s books. Travelling and immersion in the landscape – particularly in Iceland – are crucial in Horn’s practice, as the artist explores themes such as the weather and ecology, alongside memory, identity and change. The representation of the external world is used as an artifice or metaphor to reach an inner, mental space.

These eight photographs of the river Thames belong to a series of 80 images featured in Horn’s exhibition at Serralves in 2001, which were subsequently purchased for the Collection. In Some Thames (2000-2001), Horn captured moments of the Thames’ flowing surface to generate a set of seemingly abstract and similar images. In fact, these are realistic images whose infinite differences may seem imperceptible at first glance. On the one hand, this approach points directly to the individual experience and perception of the passage of time. On the other hand, her frequent representation or invocation of water is an allusion to life, the body, sexuality and death. Literature – namely Charles Dickens and Joseph Conrad – tells about the bodies of those who died violent deaths and were thrown into the dark waters of the Thames, and about those who committed suicide by plunging in them.