Anthony Sauvé

Don’t drink from the paddle, Acrylic ink, wooden paddles, paper, string, shipping tags
Variable dimensions, 2014

 

Proposal:  “Matière à Fiction, Matière à Penser”
Title of work: “Don’t drink from the paddle.”

I propose to take a fictional canoe trip during the weeks of the exhibition, on the world’s most polluted waterways. A custom in canoeing is to commemorate the journey with a representation of the route directly on the paddle taken on the trip. Another tradition is drinking water from the paddle, by turning it upside down and drinking from the handle; but the water on this imaginary voyage is toxic and infected.

I’m researching and making a list of the world’s most polluted rivers and lakes. I plan to print the name and fading outline of a lake on one side of a paddle and the symbol for water pollutants on the other. On a mural, I will print rows of paddles in a pattern and write the names of polluted rivers inside. The two dozen wooden paddles would be leaning against the mural or suspended in front of it from the ceiling of the gallery. Each paddle would be identified with a shipping tag, with the date for that particular fictional day trip. (Actual dates of the exhibition).