DOGGERLAND

BOAT 2 (Doggerland) Performance & kayak made from home recycled plastics Titled after the area of land that once connected Britain to mainland Europe before becoming submerged during the mesolithic period, Doggerland is a kayak built from recycled plastic milk containers and shopping bags and with direct reference to ancient boat building techniques (namely skin-on-frame and birchbark canoes). The work is an attempt to use a similar suite of tools and techniques as would have been used by our ancient ancaestors but to use materials that are abundant in our modern world. In a sense the boat itself is an attempt to reconnect to our past, but the limitations of the materials and our understanding of our heritage complicate the attempt. Themes of this work were re-enforced during a performance for Secret Strangelove (part of the Strange Love Festival) in which a character tells a story of his journey from his ancient home to the location of the performance. The character builds a new boat each time they land on a new island, each boat an assimilation of the lessons of that island and reflection of its material. During the storytelling narrative the audience the audience is told of fantastic events that hint at some allegorical significance and that demonstrates changing conceptions of the world and of migration from the mesolithic to the present moment. The narrative was inspired by fantastic tales of early seafaring and in specifics the voyage of St. Brendan from around 500AD.