‘A Maiden’s Voyage’
Chelsea Cafe Project #15 (2015)
A Maiden’s Voyage is an exhibition of artworks relating to the limited edition book and film of the same title by Anne Lydiat. The project seeks to find an alternative account of the gendered space of the ship, moving away from the traditional stereotypes of the female onboard as figureheads, prostitutes and that even in the 21st centuty the ship is still called ‘she’. By excavating historical examples, Lydiat demonstrates how women have been written out of this perceived masculine preserve and in so doing investigates issues of historiography and perceptions of truth.
A Maiden’s Voyage is accompanied by images of two women from Lydiat’s research including Louise Arner Boyd shown on-board the Veslekari. Boyd was the first woman to venture into Arctic regions where only men had preceded her. In 1926, her love for photography and her fascination with the stories about the first Arctic expeditions prompted Boyd to charter a boat, the Hobby, for a six-week maiden voyage to the Arctic Circle. It was the first of many increasingly daring polar ventures that she financed and directed, bringing back photographs and survey data that resulted in detailed maps of previously unknown regions.
Louise Arner Boyd on board the Veslekari. Photo: © Marin History Museum
Artistic reconstruction of Beata. Photo: https://www.vasamuseet.se/en
Master of ‘A Maiden’s Voyage’ film
The portrait of Beata is an artistic reconstruction of a woman of about 25 years old and thought to have probably been the wife or sister of one of the crew. Her remains were salvaged in 1961 from on-board the warship Vasa that had set sail on her maiden voyage and then sank in Stockholm Harbour on 10th August 1628.
‘A Maiden’s Voyage’ (2015) gives homage to Marcel Broodthaers’ publication A Voyage on the North Sea (1974) – no cutting remarks here. The starting point for the content of this book was an inexpensive, framed, unsigned, and unlocated, painting printed ‘on board’, bought in a UK charity shop. The essential component, in the foreground of the painting, is the ‘bum-boat’ ferrying two women and a child to a ship at anchor. It is a rarity to find paintings that depict the presence of women in maritime history and this artist’s book is a space that marks this gendered absence.
