Life is a Leaking Boat is the overarching title for a body of work the core image and theme of which is that of a coracle.
Although each work stands in its own right, together they are part of an ongoing project in which the various elements inform one another. The works originate from, and are contextualised by, the starting point for the whole work, an artist’s book –
Life is a Leaking Boat.
A notoriously unstable vessel, the coracle is a symbol of vulnerability and of response to the environment that is used here as a metaphor for the anxieties and uncertainty of life.
Central to the work is a coracle frame. It has no skin and it will never be able to float. It therefore has no practical purpose. It is a boat for dry land.
Coracle Men. 2024. four framed photographs, 30 x 40 cm each.
The photographs of coracle men are based on vintage photos from J. Geraint Jenkins' book The Coracle. These men carry their boats on their backs in the traditional way but here to no avail. These coracles will never float. They are just a burden.
Qi. 2023. framed photograph 31 x 39 cm
Dressed in a dinner jacket and carpet slippers, a lonely figure sits in a room as life forces in the form of origami boats overwhelm him and flow out and away from his body
The detritus from the performance form two small installations.
Life is a leaking boat. 2023
table installation with sound
dimensions variable
Song. 2024
Installation with sound
dimensions variable
Cywydd. 2023. coracle frame installation, dimensions variable. 2024
From the coracle frame flow paper origami boats. These act as symbolic representations of life ebbing away; sperm flowing to a mother vessel; or fish; or life force.
Other rivers. 2023. inkjet prints on canvas 155 x 135 cm.
Collage on canvas based on an image of an idealised and rationalised coracle frame.