A MAIDEN’S VOYAGE (2015)
A MAIDEN’S VOYAGE (2015) gives homage to the Belgian conceptual artist Marcel Broodthaer’s (1926-1976) ‘book-film’, A Voyage on the North Sea. The starting point for his book-film was a black and white photograph of a 20th century sailboat in the port of Ostend, and an ‘expensive’ 19th century amateur oil painting of a small fleet dominated by a large fishing boat returning back to port, that he bought from a flea market in Paris. Broodthaer’s A Voyage on the North Sea was launched on 28 January 1974 at the London Offices of Petersburg Press. He wrote:
“it is up to the attentive reader to find out what devilish motive inspired this book’s publication”
The starting point for A MAIDEN’S VOYAGE was an ‘inexpensive’, unsigned and un-located painting depicting a ‘bum-boat’ ferrying to women and a child to a ship at anchor. I purchased it at a UK charity shop. It is a rare thing to find a painting that depicts the presence of women in maritime history and this artist’s book is motivated by a desire to re-assert their presence and mark this gendered absence. I launched the work alongside the accompanying film at my Chelsea Cafe Project exhibition.
