By Maddy Fisk
The installation of “Vikings: Journey of 1000 Boats” will be exhibited in the Great Court of the British Museum from Friday 28 February until Tuesday 4 March. If you get a chance please do go and visit.
Inspired by the journeys taken by Vikings this project aims to create a fleet of longboats, knorrs and fishing boats exploring Viking dispersal across Europe.
Working with raw materials and employing natural colours and pigments, the boats show off simplicity yet each with its own unique and individual detail – weaving in raffia, collage with handmade paper, felting with fleece; some boats were created from mud larking journeys along the Thames, using materials straight off the water’s edge and some have been made by fusing glass.
The project is a collaboration of work with several community organisations in Camden and Islington — Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association, British Museum community Arts group at the Mary Ward Centre, Chadswell Healthy Living Centre, the Calthorpe Project, CSV/RSVP, Christopher Hatton Primary School, Akbar House with ASRA Housing Association, Millman Street Resource Centre, Mildmay Street with Notting Hill Housing, Women at the Well, Argyle Primary School, Arlington and SPACE.
Mila and I will also be at the British Museum on Sunday 2 March from 11.30am to 2.30pm where Sophie and Erica will be running a workshop where you can come and make your own Viking Boat!
Vikings: Journey of 1000 Boats will be exhibited in the Great Court of the British Museum from Friday 28 February until Tuesday 4 March 2014.
Maddy Fisk is a community arts worker at the Mary Ward Centre.