The dinghy as an art form
Artist Brisley (right) works on installation
INSTALLATION: You may think that there is an aesthetic and graceful feel to the sweeping hull of the Wagtail, modelled as it is on the clinker built dinghies of 70 years ago, but it still may surprise you that one of them has been given centre stage in Southampton' s John Hansard art gallery.
Called 'Touching Black Ice', it is an evocative piece about the Titanic which includes a voice-over based on the survivors' recollections: the installation is shown alongside a short film about the sinking of the MV Estonia in the Baltic in 1994, again by Brisley, and ideally the boat had to link the two.
The gallery found Salterns Boatbuilders through their website. Salterns, being based in Hamble, are local to the gallery and were more than happy to work with them on the project, although they feel that this may be the first and only time that their name will be uttered in the same breath as the Henry Moore Foundation - one of the exhibition sponsors.
So, courtesy of an unlikely artistic collaboration, the Wagtail's classical form now stands shrouded in the eerie light of the gallery with a dramatic sound track, instead of water, washing over her.
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