Fleet

A site-specific installation commissioned by
The Lowry, Salford

Dates

November 2005 – May 2006

Creative Team

Conceived by
David Harradine & Samantha Butler

Designed by
David Harradine, Samantha Butler & Ali Beale

Production Manager
Ali Beale

Sound installation designed by
David Harradine, Samantha Butler
& David Leahy

Music composed and performed
by David Leahy

Poem by
David Harradine

Sound Engineer
Peter Cudmore

Installation Assistant
Sally Richardson

Company General Manager
Ghislaine Granger

 

Commissioned by The Lowry at Salford Quays for the gallery exhibition
“The Art of White”, Fleet was an installation of paper boats and specially commissioned soundscapes, inspired by the history of the Quays as a departure and arrival point for countless ships, boats and barges.

The boats, each hand folded from a single sheet of paper, were suspended high above the public foyer space at The Lowry. As spectators moved through and around the space the installation offered multiple points of view before revealing that the individual boats sailed as a fleet, itself echoing the shape of each individual vessel.
Spectators also wore infra-red headphones which tuned in and out of connection with a series of soundscapes that combined an original music score, a deconstruction of the shipping forecast and a specially commissioned poem to evoke the bustle and chaos of the quays when they were still an industrial workplace.