But more wonderful than the lore of old men and the lore of books is the secret lore of ocean. – HP Lovecraft.
Ships, Storms, Captains, Crew, Grog…no, there’s no giant whales or a turbulent squid or any swords or canons. In fact, this post doesn’t really have anything to do with those things.
However, there was a ship and there was a storm…
During late February to late September, I worked alongside a small-yet highly efficient and intelligent-team on a public art sculpture with a local artist and sculptor by the name of Alex Mickle. This project, initially called the “sound wall project” was part of the first unit for the Bachelor of Honours Visual Art Major degree, Directed Study. This is the first installment that covers the story of “The Rescue,” a special public art project.
Being a university project the emphasis was always going to be on a great challenge and, in this case, working alongside a team collaboratively and being”directed” by Alex. The collaborative effort definitely made this project a huge success.
We began with the issue of the wall: it was 103 metres long and we, under the obligation of the unit outline, had to work around this huge length. Another trouble we found is that the wall itself was only 1.5 metres in height and this capped in what we could portray on the wall.
Initial research began with a lead from a local anecdote, ‘Old Bob’. Old Bob, as we found out, was part of a larger story surrounding a local (local being Bunbury, Western Australia) shipwreck; Old Bob himself was actually the ship’s dog.
As we were to find out, this mythic canine was buried up in the maritime history of Bunbury itself. The vessel herself was named the Carbet Castle and was a three-mast barque, a type of sailing ship built in the UK around 1875. The ship itself was wrecked during a gale in a local bay, Koombana bay, which still exists today and operates largely as a family/tourist beach and also a port.
During the our research we found original newspapers that stated very opposing positions on what exactly happened during the shipwreck. At the same time we also uncovered multiple images of the shipwreck in both post and pre gale damage. These are contrasted below in the various time periods.
Continual research into the ship only provided a strengthened theme for our concept. It was clear from here on in that we were going to explore the story of the Carbet Castle. Most importantly, our decision was delving into our local history and, remarkably, the wreck itself was just a few hundred metres away from the site of the soundwall.
During this time there were two distinct visual omissions from the story: what was of the ship’s dog, ‘Old Bob’, and were there any remaining photos or information on him? And secondly, the question was how would we recreate this story in a way that was contemporary, slightly radical, timeless, engaging to a diverse audience and familiar enough to promote a resurgence in both strong public artwork and local history?
Drawing. It’s where we all start with a design. It is also such a crucial skill to have in any stage of conceptualising.
When we started (whenever I refer to “we” I mean Myself, Dan, and Rebecca – the honours visual art team) we began doing a lot of line drawings. During my initial research I found some online images (see above) and these greatly informed my own depiction of the shipwreck.
Alex challenged us to see our drawings in a way that they were already made sculpturally. Our depictions slowly moved towards this aesthetic and we decided quite early on that steel rods, flat-bar and steel plate would form the end material.
The interplay between the subject matter of mythic dog, near ill-fated crew and the ship itself became something each of us explored.
Not too long thereafter, we all began thinking about how this work should be designed in terms of a cohesive structure that ‘flowed’. Our immediate interpretations of this were guided by the format of the wall; secondly, the two contrasting reports from the paper and thirdly, the binding of it as a story.
This was admittedly the hardest part of the whole project. Coming up with a design we all agreed upon took many weeks, with the pressure in the forefront of our thoughts being, “what if this doesn’t work when it’s on the wall?” In fact, there was absolutely no way of knowing what the sculpture would look like because no building at university could provide us with a proper representation of the final piece.
With our design down, and the first quarter of the year already upon us, we revealed our grand scheme to the City of Bunbury Council. From our original 1:5.5 Scale we worked to a even tighter 1:55 scale which I hand drew on an absurdly long piece of paper.
Of course, this is even more unbearably difficult to see on a computer screen that limits the dimensions and detail.
From here, it was a closing-in, a shift to prepare the designs for our 1:1 scale blueprints that would aid us throughout the fabrication stages.
I, like Dan and Bek, began to scale up my drawing using a projector and working out the exact dimensions. This was a fun process because it allowed us to familiarise the pathways of our work and get the closest sense of what the sculpture would be like.
Alongside this, there was a certainty that came with the thickness or weight of the lines and how these would be translated into steel. For example, my design lent itself to a variety of steel rods and different shaped flat bar pieces.
With our deadline nearing 3 or so weeks away, we began to realise that this was bigger than university; it had split through that and became something larger than any of us had imagined.
Thanks everyone! I hope you enjoyed reading this first installment. Part 2 will cover the fabrication stage and showcase the variety of subject matter through WIPs.
His Empty Space 