11 Feb 2018

Boat date on Auckland's waterways

From Standing Room Only, 12:30 pm on 11 February 2018

Over the past two years, Auckland artist, writer and curator Melissa Laing has been taking people out on her boat on the waterways of West Auckland and inviting them to share stories.

Laing hand built her small shallow-draft rowboat – a type of vessel known as a Gloucester Light Dory - which she named The Question Put.

For the Auckland Festival, she's hauling it back into the water to gather more stories as she and her guest navigate their way through waterways and go on a voyage of discovery together. 

Boat Date is billed as an “adventure, a river cruise and performative experience”.

The artist and her guest sail up the Whau River with the tide into the heart of Te Wao nui o Tiriwa (West Auckland), past mangroves, under bridges and around  fallen trees, peering into the back yards of residences and factories that edge the river.

“You get to see not only the strange and unusual spaces but the way that people treat the river as a dumping ground,” Laing says.

She had built the boat as an artwork and only later, after taking it on the river, realised the intimacy of travelling with another person, out on the water, away from daily life.

“You’re able to talk about art, life, love the environment, and have adventures.

“There’s nothing distracting you … conversations evolve.”

Melissa Laing’s Boat Date takes place from 21 February as part of the Auckland Fringe Festival. The trips have sold out.

Laing’s next exhibition, Controlled Environment Laboratory, documents the history of a laboratory facility in Palmerston North.

Controlled Environment Laboratory - an original model of the laboratory in Palmerston North, still on the wall at the main entry.

Controlled Environment Laboratory - an original model of the laboratory in Palmerston North, still on the wall at the main entry. Photo: supplied

The Controlled Environment Laboratory - the ceiling of one of the rooms with the lights on, showing the top ventilation, glass ceiling and automated misting system.

The Controlled Environment Laboratory - the ceiling of one of the rooms with the lights on, showing the top ventilation, glass ceiling and automated misting system. Photo: supplied

Melissa Laing has run a conversation group for Share Cheat Unite at Te Tuhi, written stories on riding the Western train line and building a boat for Pantograph Punch, and curated pop up events for Arts Whau including Sounding La Rosa and Tasting Words.