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2012-02-10T04:20:00.000-08:00

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Our Infinite Day-trip

2010-04-29T02:44:00.000-07:00

2010-01-25T10:53:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Our Infinite Day-trip is an ongoing project exploring material, form, function, volume and mass within a frame work of romantic ideas of wilderness, movement and shelter. It is informed by the idea that a relationship with a wilderness is largely a mediated one.

The project commenced in 2006 from a small painting made in response to a remote island I visited off the west coast of Canada.

In 2008 I received a grant from the Arts Council England to make two new works that launched the projects first stage.

Canada 2008

VIA 2008 and HIC MANEBIMVS OPTIME 2008. The works where made to be as portable as possible. They were carried as standard passenger luggage via air to Vancouver then a days journey by road, ferry and water taxi to the island. Here they were temporarily installed on the islands near inaccessible coastline for a week. Installing and maintaining the works became something of an expedition in itself; everyday, several journeys were made, either by canoe or on foot at low tide to refuel the generator that supplied power for HIC MANEBIMVS OPTIME (a neon text piece) and check both works for damage, caused by, and to prevent harm to, the islands wildlife - black bear, cougar, wolf and deer to name a few.

On one of these trips by foot I noticed I was following fresh prints in the mud and wondered who was heading out to the work. It took a moment, but I realised I was following a mature black bear. The tracks were still filling with water so it couldn't have been long ahead of me. That Bear had decided to take a closer look at VIA and had walked right through the sculpture leaving a huge muddy paw print on the ground sheet.

Our paths probably crossed by no more than two minutes needless to say I didn't hang around. returning to the cabin, behind which, incidentally the bear has its den, I witnessed it ambling along the shoreline turning boulders and rocks looking for shore crabs. (Click the image above which I shot from a safe distance).

The island has a small fluctuating population that are geographically divided into small neighborhoods. Many of them made an expedition themselves to witness the works, either on foot or by canoe.

Making VIA

VIA (Vehicle of Infinite Arrival) is built from aluminium flexi poles, coated polyamide, neoprene coated nylon, webbing and braided nylon guy lines with aluminium and nylon small parts. It is 'pitched', 'struck' and packed in the same manner as a small expedition tent.

The skin or fly depending on your point of view, was sewn by a master tent maker. The work took close to 2 years to realise.

It was built on the idea that the canoe is the ultimate nomadic tool - both vehicle and shelter.

HIC MANEBIMVS OPTIME

HIC MANEBIMVS OPTIME is a circular neon text without a start or end point.

It is a loose translation of the works Latin title.

These words (attributed to Aeneas upon finding Italy) have previously been sited on a wooded coastline (with VIA) on a remote Canadian island, at Gallery 333, Grey Area and most recently at Fabrica for the event 1-2-3-4 with Martin Creed, Bob & Roberta Smith and David Blandy. The function of the work's nomadic search for a place to be, shifts whenever temporarily 'pitched' within a space that becomes its host.

The works inherent fragility emphasizes the futility of the search; it has been remade a number of times on different continents due to breakage.

The piece was originally commisioned by peripatetic friends and exists as a multiple of 6 of which 4 remain. You can see the work here