Crossings is a new installation artwork by world renowned artist Luke Jerram in collaboration with BBC Radio4 producer Julian May, which was commissioned by Compton Verney for its first presentation during summer 2022. It was presented in Crawley as part of Around The Lake Festival by Creative Playground on Saturday 13 – Wednesday 17 July.
Listen online to the stories from Crossings (full playlist)
Story 1 Crossing From the Jungle
Mana Azarish is Kurdish: she tells the story of how, aged thirteen, she guided, navigating by the stars, a rickety boat full of refugees across the Channel
Story 2 Saving the Seas – With Sound
Steve Simpson is Professor of Marine Biology & Global Change at the University of Bristol. His research, conducted by boat and underwater, reveals that the marine world is anything but silent. We hear the sounds made by this vociferous community.
Story 3 Three Irish Women Build a Currach for Saiorse
Elaine Moynihan, her sister Sinéad and their friend Katy McShane tell their story of making a currach, Spiorad na Saoirse, in memory of their friend and Katy’s sister, and rowing it in An Rás Mór, Ireland’s long distance Ocean to City race.
Story 4 Cormorant Fishing
Richard King is fascinated by cormorants and travelled all over the world researching these remarkable birds while writing his book The Devil’s Cormorant. Rich tells the story of ukai, the practice of fishing with cormorants on the Nagaragawa river in Japan.
Story 5 Night Boat to Timbuktu
Broadcaster Andy Kershaw doesn’t just play the music he loves, he seeks out the musicians making it. So he took a steamer along the Niger to find his friend, the late, great Malian bluesman Ali Farka Touré, and went with him to Timbuktu.
Story 6 Mr Fan, Vietnamese Boat Person
For years Mr Fan was a popular barber in Greenwich. Julian May, who has recorded all Crossings stories, was a regular customer. Over the years, as the hair falling to the floor turned grey, Mr Fan’s story emerged. After ten years Julian goes to see Mr Fan again and, in conversation, records his story.
Story 7 From Elephant Island to South Georgia – Following Shackleton
When, in October, 1915, Ernest Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, was crushed, he decided to sail 800 miles in the lifeboat through some of the roughest seas in the world, to South Georgia to get help. Seb Coulthard tells the story of how in 2013 he made the same voyage.
Story 8 How the Sweet Potato Came to Polynesia
Professor Steven Hooper tells the story of how Polynesian navigators trained from childhood and sailed fast canoes all over the Pacific and, Steve is convinced, to South America. And then sailed back home again, with sweet potatoes.
Story 9 From San Francisco to Sydney on a Raft of Plastic Bottles
Jo Royle’s ambition was to become the fastest ocean racing skipper in the world. But the only record she has won is for the slowest sailing across the Pacific. She was aboard the Plastiki, a vessel made from almost 13,000 plastic water bottles. Jo tells the story, describing life aboard.
Story 10 Alone in the City, Drowning, Almost
Neil Trevithick lives on a boat; he’s built a boat; he’s been a fisherman; he’s sailed solo across the Atlantic. Some of his voyages have been risky. But he came closest to drowning close to home in the river near the Thames Barrier. He lived to tell the tale, which he does.
Story 11 From Barbados to Bristol, May Tanner’s journey with the NHS
Marking the 75th anniversary year of the NHS and of Windrush, this is the story of May Tanner who became the first black ward sister at Bristol Royal Infirmary. This story was recorded as a special NHS anniversary addition to Crossings. The story was commissioned by University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust and Super Culture.
Story 12 The Odyssey of Parveen Khan
This is the story of a citizen of Crawley made especially for Crossings at the Around the Lake Festival. Parveen Khan tells the story of how she came from the mountains of Kashmir to Crawley, the town she has called home for 12 years.
About Crossings
The installation consists of 9 rowing boats on the water. Each of the boats plays audio of stories from around the world.
In choosing a story and rowing out into the water for 30 minutes participants are taken on an audio journey, transported to another life and circumstance. The action of rowing and the live sounds this action creates, blends with the recorded audio, to help create a truly engaging and immersive experience.
The boats are decorated with imagery relating to the stories.
Symbolism of boats
Boats can be a form of transport, a vehicle to enable work, a method of escape, a tool of employment. They are a way of connecting people and places. They can simply be an object of leisure. Boats are symbolic of journeying into the unknown and of the journey of life.
About Luke Jerram
Luke Jerram’s multidisciplinary practice involves the creation of sculptures, installations and live arts projects. Living in the UK but working internationally since 1997, Jerram has created a number of extraordinary art projects which have excited and inspired people around the world. In 2023 alone, he had over 115 exhibitions in 27 different countries, visited by more than 3 million people.
As well as touring his installations, Luke’s artworks are in over 60 permanent collections around the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Shanghai Museum of Glass and the Wellcome Collection in London.
Visit Luke Jerram’s website HERE
Crossings by Luke Jerram originally commissioned by Compton Verney Art Gallery & Park. Presented in Crawley by Creative Playground Crawley, supported by Crawley Borough Council.
Image credit: Matthew Keenan.
