Barge Ideaal, Lots Ait

What a wonderful warm and generous evening we all enjoyed last Saturday 21st September on Ben Eastop’s boat. I’m still carrying around with me the vision of the phenomenal landscape in which Barge Ideaal is moored. We arrived at dusk to be met at the bridge and escorted across the river to the island and then onto the pontoon to the boat. The scale of the whole thing brought to mind thoughts of the Styx and other Chinese stories of boatmen and portals into another world.
Exceptionally beautiful at dusk, this certainly didn’t feel like London as on arrival the reflections in the water revealed enormous cranes, other huge mysterious boats and a usually inaccessible industrial landscape. When we came out much later the water had disappeared and all the boats were teetering on an emulsion of thick mud with darkness all around amongst a myriad of coloured blinking lights.
With the skill and experience of two artists who have been operating in the artworld for years, Ben and Bruce produced a really enjoyable interesting, engaging and democratic evening. Some of the films were much better than others, but overall there was a sense of the extraordinary link between artists across the globe and that desire to see and be seen.
Sandie Macrae