Plain Sailing

On Sunday I had my first rowing lesson with Bill up on Modsary Lochen. I have the use of one of Borgie Lodge’s rowing boats, which are usually used by their guests for fishing expeditions. Bill is one of the local postmen and my indoor bowling mentor. I reckon I didn’t do too badly, I am a little heavy on the right oar as I am naturally right handed, and I am digging too deeply with the oars, which in return requires a larger than normal effort to then raise them and bring them backwards. However, I believe that given enough training on the rowing machine in Bettyhill fitness suite and at least 100 press ups a day, I will be in physical shape to complete my proposed endeavour. To row to Eilean Nan Ron from the harbour at Skerray. Having crossed the water in choppy and calm conditions, I am in under no illusions as to the difficulty of this task, particularly considering my diminutive stature and my lack of seaman ship. My arms are not aching yet but I know they will. My back hurts, reminding me of the last large outdoor performance to camera which I undertook, ‘’Bearing Witness’’ 2004 In which I carried a 15 foot flagpole to the summit of a 1000ft Volcanic Plug named Dumgoyne, everyday for one week. I feel sure that the tinges I occasionally suffer in my back are due to permanent spinal damage I inflicted upon myself during the course of this work. Rowing to Eilean Nan Ron will not be easy, but I have found in cases such as this, that physical pain can be surmounted where the mental will is strong enough. The women of the island regularly rowed back and forth along the two- mile stretch of water between the two ports, they were skilled oarsmen and in one of my favourite stories about the islanders, they are acknowledged as such:

‘’Every summer the duchess would come up the coast in the yacht Catania, anchor off shore and come in on the steam pinnace. One year the pinnace went aground on shallow rocks covered in dulse. Because it was summer there were only women, children and old men on the island, so the women went out to re-float the pinnace- they were highly skilled oarsmen. The duchess rewarded the success of the mission with dresses for every woman on the island. A tailor was sent over, each woman was measured and each chose the pattern and material they wanted. The dresses lasted for years and then got remodelled into kilts for the children.’’

It is my intention to physically map the distance between the two ports, whilst simultaneously undertaking a test of endurance, referencing both the strength and capability of the women of the island from the past, in a form of sea passage rarely used now. I will of course be taking a safety boat and will be wearing a life jacket. I hope to have recruited a film crew by the chosen date, someone to film me in the boat, from the safety boat and from the top of the hillside on the main land, where both ports can easily be seen in the same frame.
On arriving at the island I intend to stay there that night, conducting an illumination of the houses, which will hopefully be visible from the mainland. I am going to contact the local community through a very effective system that I use with Bill, I print out my message to the local community and he puts a copy in with every houses delivery of mail (this way I am sure that everyone knows) I am going to ask for volunteers to film the act (I may be able to pay them a little) and I am going to ask if any of the local community would like to sponsor the illumination of the windows, by lending me their lamps. The documentation of the act along with the textual piece, which I am still working on, will form an installation that I will show towards the end of the residency in the community hall. Tomorrow I am going to get hold of the tidal maps and a long term weather forecast in order to pre empt which day will offer optimum conditions. The equinox is in roughly 4-5 weeks, so I hope to have it completed before then.

Two images from a video piece, Liberty Tower, which I am working on, are now on a blog page called lebanonthesedays.blogspot.com, set up by a Lebanese friend of mine, who is also an artist. The page offers people from everywhere, a space to express how they think and feel through text and image, these days as the conflict in Lebanon continues. It has offered me a way to address the conflict in a manner, which I can share with my friends in Beirut, and whilst it isn’t nearly enough, at the very least this shared participation, resists the temptation to veer towards the cynical.

I have also been filming the bowling in Skerray community hall, my one and only social event up here. Looking back over previous blog publications, my project has changed course little by little each time, I think finally this act will form all the things that I have been edging towards, addressing both past and present, mainland and island, story telling and communication over distances. However, it will probably have evolved again by next week, so watch this space. Ciao ciao.