Ellen MacArthur meets David Blaine

Sailing sculptress Lia Ditton to spend 28 days enacting OSTAR voyage on a trimaran on central London hard

Last year as regular readers of thedailysail.com will remember, Lia Ditton successfully raced the 34ft trimaran Shockwave across the Atlantic singlehanded in the Faraday Mill OSTAR, recounting her experiences in a series of illuminating and entertaining diary pieces.

While Lia was 11th overall and the youngest and only woman to finish in that event, subsequently delivering the boat back to the UK also on her own, her voyage was unique for another reason: it formed part of her BA degree in Fine Art Sculpture at London’s prestigious Chelsea College of Art.

'As Turner had himself tied to the rail of a ship in the throe of a storm, in order to experience the subject of his painting,’ so Lia claims to have entered the singlehanded Transatlantic Race in order to experience the subject of her art. The last piece of art Lia made before departing Plymouth in the OSTAR was a large wall drawing which invited viewers to ‘Consider one space from the perspective of another.’

Hence, this June will complete Lia’s endeavour, as Lia will re-create her crossing aboard her trimaran as part of a live 24/7 art installation entitled ‘Absolute Solitude: 1 Woman 1 Boat.’ Like her OSTAR passage, when Lia lived in 8ft by 3ft of cabin space, this event will involve her spending 28 days couped up, alone on board a trimaran - on this occasion Jean le Cam’s first generation Biscuits Cantreau Formula 40, now Peter Bryant’s Pro Vu - again with ‘no outside assistance’. The significant difference this time is the boat will be out of the water, in the centre of London with Lia continuously ‘on display.’

“It is an expression of my experience of crossing the Atlantic alone and although it is nothing like physically crossing the Atlantic alone it has some of the same core elements - of solitary confinement, of micro and macro spaces,” Lia describes it. “Performance art can be any situation that involves the basics of time, space, the performer’s body and a relationship between performer and audience, in this case, the relationship between the skipper and visitors. So people can come along and question me about what it is like to cross the Atlantic, with more idea of the context. It is one step further than a recounted narrative.”

Inspiration for this, Lia says, came when she saw footage of Ellen MacArthur kissing her Open 60 before stepping off at the finish the Vendee Globe in 2001. “I was fascinated by that moment - it was representative of a relationship that had clearly built up between Ellen and her boat. So that is partly the reason but equally when you enter a race you wave goodbye to your friends and sponsors at the start and wave hello to them at the end, but what happens on a day to day basis no one quite knows, so it is an opportunity for a mass audience to observe that in a rudimentary fashion, re-enacted in central London.”

There have of course been precedents to this kind of behaviour - mostly memorably American illusionist David Blaine who in 2003 spent 44 days suspended in a glass box over the River Thames living without food, solely off a supply of water. The reaction of Londoners to Blaine’s self-imposed ordeal: to throw golf balls, tomatoes and other food stuffs at him, exposure of breasts and buttocks for his benefit, as well thoughtfully frying bacon on a barbeque upwind of him. Ho ho.

Androgynous, carrot cropped, bleach white-skinned actress Tilda Swinton, best known recently for playing the White Witch in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, was perhaps more closely aligned when as part of a performance piece by Damian Hurst, in 1995 called The Maybe, she spent eight hours a day sleeping in a display case, with a small sign next to it reading: 'Matilda Swinton (1960-)'.

While Lia won’t have quite the same rigours of having to deal with sailing her trimaran alone upwind across the North Atlantic, being an ‘exhibit’, constantly on display and with no privacy thanks to various webcams zipping out live feeds continuously, one for Big Brother style viewing on the internet and as the sole June exhibit in Galerie Mourlot in New York, along with an absence of physical contact, are likely to have an equally profound psychological affect on her.

Unlike David Blaine, Lia will be eating, but the same food she took on the OSTAR – yummy army ration packs from Wayfarers. These come in ten flavours, or, more accurately, colours. “There will be a sign saying do not feed the exhibit!” she quips.
Despite liking her food and being an accomplished chef who has catered for numerous race boat crews in the US, during the OSTAR Lia admits she was forced to eat about 80% of her meals cold.

The most challenging side of the project has been the logistics of simply getting a 40ft by 28ft wide trimaran into Central London, out of the water and into its June home, the courtyard of Chelsea College of Art next door to the Tate Britain gallery. This will involve taking the rig out of the boat in Gravesend on the Thames estuary, motoring or towing the boat up the Thames to a position on the river opposite Chelsea College. Then at the right state of tide, the boat will be craned on to a flat bed truck where to get it up a narrow slip way it will sit on an especially-constructed frame, angled near vertically, before it is transported across Vauxhall Bridge to the College courtyard. This little exercise involves exciting and costly central London road (and bridge) closures.

Once Lia sets off on her static journey on 4 June, visitors will be able to view ‘the exhibit’ from a platform. A program of additional entertainment is planned. This will include lunchtime motivational speeches such as one by her mentor, leading entrepreneur Simon Woodroffe, founder of Yo! Sushi, while sailing friend and round the world skipper Andy Dare is to do a talk about heavy weather sailing, complete with pyrotechnics provided by Pains Wessex.

“We are hoping to have an all-weather party where people arrive dressed appropriately and hoping that the local fire station will oblige by testing out the quality of people’s foul weather gear,” Lia adds.

Club nights around the boat, with DJs are also being arranged. “There were moments when I danced on the windward float- I had various club nights offshore by myself, so it seems right to replicate them on a grander scale,” she says. There will also be the opportunity to win a dinner on the ‘Captains Table’ (on top of the viewing platform) with a celebrity host and a special guest chef.

Then there is the small matter of budget. Although the installation technically forms part of Chelsea College of Art’s degree show, one can easily believe the cost of this exercise way exceeds the budgets of all her fellow students combined. Thanks to contacts such as Simon Woodroffe at the London private members club Home House, and networking from there she is in the process of raising money by offering patron d’art opportunities or a more expensive package including a piece of art created by her during the 28 days on board and a trip out with her on Pro Vu once it is re-launched.

For more information see www.onewomanoneboat.com