I have a bit of a thing about Herman Melville.
We share a birthday (1st Aug)
& I’ve tried reading Moby Dick on two occasions and struggled to engage.
I have a bit of a thing about coincidence/synchronicity, especially when it is tenuous.
I was watching a clip from the 1956 version of Moby Dick on YouTube the other day and there's a great line:
Capt Ahab (Gregory Peck)
Did yer see him lads? Did yer see his hump like a great snow hill?
In the UK Birmingham is about as far as you can get from the sea. What with the melting ice caps and all that I find some comfort in this distance. I remember, at about the age of 10, staring out to sea on the front at Bridlington one chilly Easter and having my first real sense of awe at the power of nature. The anthracite grey of the restless waves reflecting a sky of equal tonal depth seeming to stretch out and away forever towards an indiscernable horizon.
The piece I will be making consists essentially of two parts. Firstly the construction of a small sculptural assemblage consisting of a blue circle painted on the floor on which are arranged a series of toy woollen whales knitted by my mom Jillian Hope.
The mini whales will surround a centrally placed scale model of a New Bedford whale boat constructed by myself from a kit purchased from Blue Jacket Models of Searsport Maine.
After a short time part two will take place. I will invite Claudia to destroy (or "disable") the boat by stepping up on deck as a symbolic action with the obvious links to issues regarding whaling as well as being an expression of feminine energy. One essay on Moby Dick considers the notion of the White Whale symbolising the void or a sense of unknowing. I wish to allow the Goddess into that space also.
All these activities will be photographed, videoed and blogged.
Simon Hope May 08
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