Southend Sails is a new community-made textile artwork for Southend High Street, created with local people using recycled boat sails and silk remnants from Kinetika’s collection.

Led by artist Katrin Mountain, the project brought together people of different ages and backgrounds from across Southend to design and create a large-scale public artwork inspired by lived experience, shared stories and life along the Thames Estuary.

Through a series of accessible design and making sessions, participants explored ideas, learnt simple textile and embroidery techniques and worked collaboratively towards a single collective artwork.

At the heart of the project was one shared question:

What makes you feel like you’ve got the wind in your sails?

Responses to this question have been embroidered and incorporated into the sails, creating an artwork carrying messages of hope, motivation and connection from people across the city.

The Story

Southend Sails is rooted in the landscape, communities and maritime identity of the Thames Estuary.

The project combines recycled boat sails with silk remnants from Kinetika’s collection, giving existing materials a new life while creating something that belongs specifically to Southend.

One of the sails was donated by Neil Woodbridge, a local sailor from the Thames Estuary Yacht Club. The sail had travelled across the Thames Estuary for more than 20 years, including journeys from Southend Pier to Canvey and Queenborough in Kent, before being transformed into part of the new artwork.

Neil said:

“I was born in Southend and it was a real privilege to meet local people and artists who came together to make this wonderful piece. The sail has been all over the Thames Estuary, from the Pier to Canvey, to Queenborough in Kent for the past 20 years plus and now at its final resting place it’s recycled into an artwork on the High Street of the city. Marvellous!”

Community Involvement

Design and embroidery workshops took place with:

• Create98

• Brazilarte

• Welcome to the UK

• Participants from Focal Point Gallery’s Blank Slate and Contemporary Elders programmes

The sails were sewn by Blue Marine.

Building on Threads for Tomorrow

Southend Sails builds on Threads for Tomorrow, one of eight regional commissions created as part of Beach of Dreams across the Thames Estuary.

Threads for Tomorrow explored waste, climate and collective care by transforming storm-damaged Beach of Dreams silks into a new public artwork.

Led by designer and textile artist Rahemur Rahman, the project brought together eight sewing groups from across the Estuary. Participants worked with fragments of the original silks, naturally dyed threads and waste materials gathered from the Thames shoreline to create individual textile panels.

Southend Sails continues this story of reuse, place and collective creativity, reflecting Kinetika’s long-term commitment to community-led making and environmentally conscious practice.

Commissioned by: Southend-on-Sea City Council
Funded by: UK Shared Prosperity Fund
Delivered by: Kinetika
Lead artist: Katrin Mountain
Sail construction: Blue Marine

With participation and support from Create98, Brazilarte, Welcome to the UK and Focal Point Gallery’s Blank Slate and Contemporary Elders programmes.