Wandering
sailor
wandering sailor, a short film and its surrounding body of work, explores a fictional and fantastical narrative - the winding journey of a Sailor, a queer archetype, who wakes up in the New Forest, an uncertain and unfamiliar terrain, and how the sailor finds their way using unconventional methods of navigation:
a ‘telescope’ made out of rolled up cardboard covered with individual chocolate wrappers, an eye to see through
a paper hat, folded as a child would, a sense memory hanging in the balance, a cloud drifts across the sun and changes our mood
Gorse flowers, pressed and laid out in the shape of an arrow, an individual flower drifting across a puddle on the heath, a guide to north and south, to go with the wind.
along this journey, the sailor begins to notice a code within the language of the forest, seeing ‘accidental’ X’s in brambles and sticks.
whilst at sea, sailors repaired sails, their own clothing, customised hats with intricate embroidery and made delicate folk art. the Sailor’s Hat and Flag reinterpret this textiles labour, using hand embroidery and appliqué.
during the introspective, solitary work of stitching, the symbol of a sweet chestnut shell dried open like a ‘X’ emerges, an emblem of unknown origin hinting at a transformation.
The Sailor’s Hat
A sailor’s hat, appliqued and hand-embroidered with an emblem of a sweet chestnut shell, dried open like a X. Cross stitches hold a band of silk around the head band. Small crosses scatter across a black surface. Worn as a uniform, a costume, a signifier of transformation.
To Cross a Threshold
Symbols laid out around a circle. Arrows fading, imprints, traces. Time stood still.
The act of scattering, sorting, discarding, arranging, stitching.
What is the meaning of a X?
‘X marks the spot’
to ‘cross’ something out as the eradication of or censoring of something (an identity)
an entrance, an exit, an incision, a spell, a protection, a warning, a kiss.
Flag - An Open Mesh
Shadow
Telescope - To mistake an eye for an eye
Drawing from various folklore, plantlore, myths and sayings, and through a documentation of the everyday, this work was developed during a year at spudWORKS, Sway, New Forest. It was exhibited within Possibilities, Gaps, Overlaps - a group exhibition with Jindra Jehu, Leylah Morley & Zara Linsley.
