Blank Media Collective

Fantasy Vessel by Sarah Nicholson

Artist's Comments

Sarah has been assisted and inspired by children from Holy Trinity School.
Together they have engaged in that age-long activity of childhood – playing on the furniture. The play centred on the notion of the ship as a vessel of escape to an ideal land; a metaphor for the popular tabloid concepts of immigration. This has led to the creation of two ships of the imagination: one which is fantastical and flamboyant and one, a life boat, which is a more stark reading of the situation of the immigrant, reminds the viewer of the terrible pictures seen on the News, of the abandoned refugees’ plight at sea. The deconstruction of the furniture’s functional status is a parallel to the loss of community structures, while the children’s reconfiguration hints at new possibilities.