In 2012 I proposed to build a Venetian Gondola from cardboard, waterproof it, learn the skills of the gondolier and perform it as working Gondola at the 2013 Venice Bienalle.

I hoped to create a magical yet subtle spectacle, which examined the relationship between contemporary art, collective memory, and the Gondola. To play a role that widened the artistic experience and created unique social interaction through art. 

The work fiteds in line and developed a series of functioning, artist powered, cardboard vehicles. Car, Tram, Ice cream van, Gondola. Each  designed  and built with  care and detail to aesthetically resemble a particular model of reality. The cardboard vehicle sits, or moves through the built environment with an uncanny, yet comical presence. Through it's aesthetics, materiality and interactive playful nature, it triggers memories of  childhood discoveries.

For many artists, Venice has been a  Mecca. As a child my sister returned from a trip to Venice with a  moulded tourist plate, and  a Monet print of a Gondola. I immediately felt that Venice was, the great source of art, and to go there would unlock, any artistic potential I might have. Today Las Vegas has a hotel which is  a concrete imitation of Venice, and cities like Birmingham, go halfway towards this . I think, now, it is hard to see a Gondolier in Venice without this background pollution. I believe the cardboard gondola will work as some kind of tonic to this.  It will evoke in the viewer  their first imagining of a Gondola in Venice.

The piece also aimed to allow me as an artist to enter  another reality. To play the role of craftsman, sole trader, gondolier, to transcend, my birthplace . It is a great challenge to build the gondola in a way  that it will be appreciated by other gondoliers in Venice, and will, charm rather than challenge  the authorities.  All previous cardboard vehicles have operated without license, or permission, on public roads and land, and to my surprise often been celebrated by the police. I am  fascinated to see if this can continue  with the Gondola in Venice.