Begun May 2020
In civilizations without boats, dreams dry up, espionage takes the place of adventure, and the police take the place of pirates.
—Michel Foucault “Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias,” 1967
I started this project in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. It emerged from the nautical roots of the term “quarantine,” which applied to vessels enduring 40-day isolation periods before entering ports. I have been building a twelve-foot skiff using designs by Platt Monfort based on light-weight airplane construction.
From the shadows cast by the boat’s frame, I will make a series of cyanotype photograms to send to every continent for exhibition. The sail—a four sided balanced lug rig—is also made from cotton on which the cyantoypes of the hull frame have been printed.
