The Boatman’s Unscheduled Crossing
Arthur Wicks (Born 1937

Materials: laminated Radiata Pine, Huon & Kingbilly Pine, stainless steel sheet, aluminium rod and tube, electric motor, bearings, pulleys, axles, Programmable Logical Controller (PLC), Passive Infrared Detector
(PIR), electric cable and relays
Date: original 2003 (NGA) ; re-design for NewActon 2009

Artist’s Statement:
I have an image of the Boatman high above my head, rowing out from one point to another, across a vast void. I strain my eyes to see where he is heading, but the destination is not clear. I wonder who his passengers are and whether he has been paid in advance.

The Boatman first appeared in 1981 when, at the 1st Sculpture Triennial in Melbourne, Arthur Wicks donned snorkel, diving goggles & suit to row members of the audience from the Sculpture Triennial to a conical structure built in the middle of the lake at Preston Institute (as it was known then). Each person was left at the conical structure to explore its contents and to rest. A little later the Boatman returned to row them back to the shore. One of his early passengers was the Governor-General of the day, Sir Zelman Cowan. The work thrived on rumour and counter rumour. On the evening of 22 March 1981 – the equinox – a special performance took place on the lake, where the nocturnal Boatman rowed passengers to the structure. In a nearby tent a submarine cavern, cast from fibreglass, was installed. Visitors to the tent were listening to the rowing sounds on the lake. A radio microphone on the Boatman’s lapel transmitted every water sound to a tiny hidden microphone and amplifier inside the fibreglass cavern. The cycle was complete. The Boatman next appeared in Swanston Street on 1 January 1985, rowing a specially constructed sculptured boat. The oar motion was translated into motion of four wheels. On this occasion the Boatman was able to painfully propel the boat along the tram tracks through an entire city block as a performance “Survival Boat for the 21st Century”.

More recently the Boatman appeared as a diminutive motorised surrogate, capable of much greater effort than the aging artist’s body. In October 2002, a special installation tracked the “Boatman’s Unscheduled Crossing” for the “Big River Show; the Murrumbidgee Riverine” at the Wagga Wagga City Gallery. The Boatman appeared again with modifications, a few months later, in the National Sculpture Prize & Exhibition 2003 at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), Canberra.

In 2008-2009, at the invitation of the Molonglo Group and in collaboration with Pamille Berg Consulting Pty Ltd the Artist re-designed and hand-fabricated the Boatman for the NewActon Glazed Display Case. In this installation, the Boatman’s rowing action is triggered by a motion-detector mounted in the ceiling above this Case. When members of the public pass by, the Boatman randomly begins one of his pre-programmed actions giving the interactive nature of the work a mysterious unpredictability. “I have an image of the Boatman high above my head, rowing out from one point to another, across a vast void. I strain my eyes to see where he is heading, but the destination is not clear. I wonder who his passengers are and whether he has been paid in advance” (extract from the NGA National Sculpture Prize & Exhibition Catalogue 2003).