Acclaimed artist's Boat Works exhibition coming to Kendal

Boat Works by the Turner Prize-winning artist will open at Abbot Hall on September 20.

The exhibition brings together nearly all of the artist’s works in which boats serve as key vessels for exploring stories of "migration, metamorphosis, and change."

Houseboat for Ho (2023) (Image: Simon Starling) Mr Starling said: "One of the great pleasures of making exhibitions of this kind is the way in which works, often familiar old favourites, made for, or in response to, very specific places, now find new voices and new conversations, both among a constellation of other such works and within the rich context of an historic building, its grounds, its nearby rivers, its boat-busy lakes and magnificent National Park.

"As stories collide and geographies are overlaid, the work live anew."

The exhibition is curated by Will Cooper, senior curator at Lakeland Arts.

The exhibition opens next month (Image: Simon Starling) Mr Cooper said: "I'm thrilled to be curating Simon Starling: Boat Works, an exhibition that re-examines the regionally familiar symbol of the boat in a completely new light.

"This is a unique opportunity for us to bring one of the UK’s most exciting artists to Kendal and to show a collection of works that have never been seen together before.

"Visitors to both Abbot Hall and Windermere Jetty Museum will be captivated by Simon’s use of boats to tell broad, interesting, and unexpected stories about history, materials, and transformation."

Houseboat for Ho reflects Starling’s interest in environmental, cultural, historical, and material narratives (Image: Simon Starling) The exhibition will feature installations such as Island for Weeds and Houseboat for Ho, which reflect Starling’s interest in environmental, cultural, historical, and material narratives.

Island for Weeds (2003) is a floating platform designed to support a species of rhododendron that is considered invasive in the UK.

Blue Boat Black (1997), Starling’s first boat work, began with a Victorian museum display case that he converted into a fishing boat.

A film follows Starling’s attempt to cross the Dead Sea in a canoe (Image: Simon Starling) After using the boat to catch fish, he transformed the vessel into charcoal, which was then used to cook the catch.

Autoxylopyrocycloboros (2006) documents a four-hour journey on Loch Long in a small steamboat powered by wood cut from its own hull.

The work’s title refers to the Ouroboros, the mythical serpent that eats its own tail, and symbolises a "cyclical act of self-consumption."

The piece is presented as a series of 38 colour transparencies.

Another major work, Project for a Rift Valley Crossing (2015–2017), is a film documenting the creation of a canoe made from magnesium extracted from Dead Sea water.

The boat was inspired by a British engineer who designed lightweight bicycle frames using the same material.

The film follows Starling’s attempt to cross the Dead Sea in the canoe.

Boat Works also includes a new collaboration with Lakeland Arts’ conservation boat builders, with plans and sketches on display at Windermere Jetty Museum.

Simon Starling is an internationally acclaimed artist who has exhibited at the 50th and 53rd Venice Biennales, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Nottingham Contemporary, and Tate St Ives.

Born in Surrey and now based in Copenhagen, he studied at Trent Polytechnic (now Nottingham Trent University) and earned an MFA from The Glasgow School of Art.

The exhibition is running from September 20 to May 16, open Wednesday to Saturdays from 10am to 4pm.

Tickets can be booked online at abbothall.org.uk.