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The Raft of the Doldrums \| 2008 \| Post-Consumed Plastic \| 72" x 72" x 72" (183 x 183 x 183cm)

The Raft of the Doldrums is the latest of the bottle caps series. Inspired by Théodore Géricault's infamous painting, Raft of the Medusa, the early nineteenth century painting depicts the desperate survivors of the French frigate Medusa, which gained notoriety when it struck the Bank of Arguin off the coast of Mauritania in 1816. The French Ministry of the Marine appointed the inexperienced Frigate-Captain Hugues Duroy de Chaumereys to lead the fleet. He had worked exclusively as a customs officer, but had acted against Napoleon during the fall of the emperor. When the ship wrecked, some say due to faulty leadership, some 250 dignitaries took the lifeboats towing the remaining crew on a provisional raft made of masts and crossbeams. Those in lifeboats soon realized that towing the raft was impractical. De Chaumereys decided to cut the rope and leave the rest of the crew to its fate, four miles off shore. Géricault's consequential painting became highly controversial to the floundering French government, in no small part to its detournement of the traditionally romanticised painting size and technique.

In its own way, the detournement occurring in the second part of the title, The Raft of the Doldrums refers to three virtual dead zones, gyres of floating plastic debris located in disparate parts of the oceans. The largest measuring twice the sizes of Texas, these areas are congregations for numerous plants and animals who unwittingly ingest the plastic particles, the results of the photo degrading process. Larger than life, the bottle cap come raft symbolizes the analogous water drop falling into the glassy smooth body of water, an illusion of its popular symbolic connotation in the ethereal, ephemeral, and pure. Yet the cap is not ethereal, not pure, and certainly not ephemeral, potentially lasting millennia as it works its way up the food chain in an ironic twist of fate. Instead monumentalising this raft, afloat in the permanence and reality of the manufactured material condition of our time, reciprocates Géricault's painting both in its pyramidal composition and political engagement.

Installed at the Art Gallery of Regina (2008)

The second installation took place back in Montreal (in the same year) at the Maison De La Culture: Mont Royal. The lighting was more dramatic and the "splash" was a bit more defined as you can see in the next series of installation images. You can also see the first paper-work pieces in the background. At the time, people were bringing me tons of plastic containers for the raft piece, but I could use the "clear" ones for this piece. It was a busy year, and I had spent all my time and effort finishing the raft, so I needed more work for the solo exhibition. Consequently, I started mucking around with sprayed paper, which proved to be an almost immediate for of expression. The work was installed a third time at Gallery 101 in Ottawa, ON in a four person exhibition titled, Detritus Ecologies, curated by Leanne L'Hirondelle. We kept getting better at installing it to suit the purpose of the concept, and I think this is my favourite installation (next group of images). The final installation took place at the Art Gallery of South-western Manitoba in an exhibition titled, Consumed and curated by Amber Anderson and Jenny Western.

Installed at the Maison de la Culture: Mont Royal (2008)

The work was installed a third time at Gallery 101 in Ottawa, ON in a four person exhibition titled, Detritus Ecologies, curated by Leanne L'Hirondelle with Twyla Exner, Troy David Ouellette, and Mae Leong. We keep getting better at installing the work to better suit the purpose of the concept, and I think this is my favourite installation. We had three full days to install, and we had arrived in Ottawa a couple days early for a little R and R, so we were in a good place. The installation only took a few hours (having installed it three times now), but we were able to make modification for the full three days. The final installation took place at the Art Gallery of South-western Manitoba in an exhibition titled, Consumed and curated by Amber Anderson and Jenny Western.

Installed at Gallery 101 (2010)



* The Bottom Right picture exhibits how Twyla can move her arms faster than the speed of light.

The final installation (to date) took place at the Art Gallery of South-western Manitoba in an exhibition titled, Consumed, curated by Amber Anderson and Jenny Western with fellow artist Emily Rosamond. The space used to be an Sears, so it was massive, and the exhibition turned out to be a broad selection of works (almost like a retrospective), which was kind of exciting. The only issue was that we only had one full day to install. It's usually enough time, but I also had to install the other 12 works in my part of the exhibition. My partner, Twyla Exner ended up installing most of the "splash" for this one. In the background of some of these images, you can see Emily Rosamond's work, which was actually very similar in form to my own. Emily was a materialist in disguise. She's currently completing her Doctorate Degree at Concordia University.

Installed at the Art Gallery of South-western Manitoba (2011)