ImpossibleImprobable Dockland- 'Row'

I located imagery of the oft cited despised guards with dogs that had been called in to protect non-union labour 10 years ago. I projected a drawing based on this subject onto the cardboard hulls along with tracings of the old rowboat picture and the phrase ‘chasing non-unionists down the river.’ I used two cardboard boxes to cover the overhead projectors, this strategy worked well as many viewers were puzzled as to from where the images were being projected. Flattened cardboard boxes were an appropriate material in which to construct the hulls as it referenced the goods loaded and unloaded at the docks.

This piece was titled ‘Row’, the dual meaning of the word suiting the objects and the subject matter. In order to row effectively everyone in a boat needs to be finely tuned to the others in a cooperative effort. Lending itself to associations with adages such as ‘don’t rock the boat,’ and the nursery rhyme ‘row row row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily merrily merrily merrily, life is but a dream.’ The nursery lyrics have often been used as a metaphor for life’s difficult choices, and the boat can be viewed as referring to one’s self or a group to which one belongs.

As an imagined work it would be a group of three boat hulls, one upturned, projected onto from the wall above using animated images and sound. The images would combine existing footage and reenactments to navigate the ‘Us versus Them’ mindsets towards an impossible resolution. The concept of ‘white noise’ comes to mind in terms of the effect I would like to engender, being at times stormy, then calm. A sound recording would provide a counterfactual history where out of the white noise the nursery rhyme surfaces being sung in unison then rounds by adult voices.

ImpossibleImprobable Docklands - 'Under'

Interface with the water

My initial response to Docklands was sparked on the first day when a group of us were heading off to lunch. We noticed a wake moving across the surface of the water. As it came closer we realized that it was a fish, perhaps a Port Jackson shark. It continued until it came near the Dock on which we were standing then turned around swimming near the surface for a short while until it went deeper.

The water at Docklands while the key feature is kept at a distance. There is no place to meet the water, to dip in your toes. There are spaces provided for ‘water enthusiasts’ at the marinas and the moored boats for hire. The issue of how to physically connect with the water at Docklands led me to ImpossibleImprobable interactive concepts.

Using a greywater laundry diverter hose I experimented with blowing into the water. This created patterns successfully, but would need the end of the pipe weighted to be stronger visually. In the end I also tried listening to the tube as you would a shell at the beach. Faint sounds were produced similar to those that can be heard when a human stomach or intestines are active.

This developed through discussion into the piece ‘Under.’ The greywater tube was suspended through an existing hole in the cement floor of the dock. The sound was amplified using equipment designed to pick up birdcalls and had a set of headphones attached. The sounds that could be heard were the lapping of the water against the piers and the pipe echoing. At times such as the opening night the ambient sounds from the people above mixed with and at times dominated the sound emerging from below.

The piece reflects the difficulty of connecting with the water as even while walking on a dock the building is such a solid structure it is a struggled to reconcile one experience with the other. That you are physically walking above water.