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tom hackett sculpture       

flotilla


50 double scale hand made deck chair forms set at tilted angles.


Each had a stencilled date on its blank canvas. the dates referred to different maritime events taking place over history from the local in the swansea area, to the national and international. They include the sinking of the mumbles lifeboat (wales), the sinking of the titanic, the date of the first woman to swim the english channel, the WWII dunkirk evacuations and the date a legendary Hawaiin called Holua surfed a tidal wave on a plank.


The work explores the notion of passive spectatorship and the replacement of history painting as a means to visualize events with the lens. The leisure associations of the deck chairs also suggest the curious consumption of the disaster event as entertainment and as a contemporary media pastime.


Commissioned by and installed at the Glynn Vivian art gallery, Swansea, sculpture court.


curated by Alison Lloyd.