The Moving Arts Collective, in partnership with Jersey Heritage and Société Jersiaise, is proud to present Vraiqu’sie, a collaborative, artist-led exhibition reimagining vraicking — Jersey’s traditional seaweed-gathering practice — as a ritual connecting land, sea, creatures and people.
Created collaboratively by six artists—Karen Le Roy Harris, Natasha Dettman, Margarida Lourenco-Olivier, Esther Rose Parkes, Kerry-Jane Warner and Blessed Ndlovu—and produced by The Moving Arts Collective, the exhibition brings together film, sculpture, sound, costumes, textiles, dyes and drawings developed through the artists’ shared journey. Newly composed songs in Jèrriais connect language, land and sea, recalling knowledge embedded in the tongue of the land.
Developed through exploration of intertidal landscapes via walks, archival research and collaboration with foragers, marine biologists and ethnobotanists, Vraiqu’sie reimagines the rhythms, labour and ritual of vraicking. Central to the exhibition is a film that immerses viewers in the landscape and follows a procession of vraiqu’rêsses (female seaweed gatherers) along historic vraicking paths as they honour the relationship between land and sea.
Performers wear sculptural forms crafted from willow and local seaweeds. Vrai (seaweed) becomes both material and metaphor—carrying heritage, shaping the body and inspiring sound and visual forms—while reconnecting audiences to the language, labour and landscapes of the island. The work invites reflection on the spirit of reciprocity between land, sea and all who inhabit the intertidal landscape.
The exhibition encourages visitors to reflect on Jersey's Intangible Cultural Heritage, communal practice and the interconnection between human and non-human life, offering a space to reimagine these relationships.
Supported By
The Barreau Art Scholarship - Société Jersiaise | Jersey Heritage | | Aspiring Jersey Island Geopark | Jersey Community Foundation with funds from the Channel Islands Lottery | Government of Jersey - Creative Island Partnership
Visitor Information
Exhibition Dates: 4 April – 31 October 2026
Opening Hours: 4 April – 24 October: 10:00 – 17:30 | 25 October – 31 October: 10:00 – 16:00
Location: Lé Châté Lîzabé - Elizabeth Castle, Jersey
Entry: Normal entry fees apply. For fees and visitor information, see Elizabeth Castle
Project Blogs & Events: Vraiqu’sie – The Moving Arts Collective
