Two Schooners and a Barque

Installed at the foot of Caernarfon Castle looking across the Menai Straights to Anglesey, Two Schooners and a Barque was presented across three sculptural viewers, each containing a stereoscopic transparency of a historic model ship. The installation made use of the bright light of the seascape surrounding it, to back-light the viewers. Shown as part of a two week festival I’r Môr/ To The Sea 2018

Medium: 35mm stereo slide viewers, wood, paint, metal, sand bag.

This piece was commissioned during a year of celebration of the sea in Wales, and shown as part of Castell 03, where art works explored Caernarfon’s long history as a sea port. I learned that roofing slates from the mines of North Wales had been shipped all over the world from Caernarfon and the surrounding ports. One of the stereoscopes features a beautiful scale model of the M A James, a typical slate schooner which would have been built on local beaches between 1891 - 1913. These were the last wooden merchant vessels to be built in the UK.

I photographed the historic model ships against specially created backdrops at the Porthmadog Maritime Museum, and the National Museums at Chatham, and I am very grateful to the volunteers and staff at both locations.