Projects: Boat-dress

Photo: Bill Mason, National Film Board of Canada

The Boat-dress was inspired in part by our apartment view of Montreal's Decarie expressway and the Canadian childhood classic, Paddle to the Sea (Produced by the Canadian National film Board in 1966, directed by Bill Mason, adapted from the story by Holling C. Holling). The Décarie expressway is a main artery of the city’s transport system, Paddle to the sea charts the course of a small wooden boat through Canada's waterways, from the St. Lawrence to the sea. Uniting these pan-Canadian transport systems, I re-imagined Paddle to the Sea in a life size boat-costume to be worn on the Décarie.


Meredith Carruthers, Still images, Please put me back in the water , 2003
Photo (bottom left) Paul Litherland

The construction of the Boat-dress borrowed from techniques used in the construction of model planes, paper lanterns and kites. Balsa and bamboo made a framework for the paper maché body of the costume. PVA was applied as a protective layer to most of the main structure and a heavy zipper was sewn by machine into the paper bodice of the outfit. The costume remained intact on the highway adventure until winds caught the bow and stern in opposing directions. The slow motion collapse of the Boat-dress is recorded in a video entitled, “Please put me back in the water”. This video and the remains of the garment were displayed at the Concordia University VAV gallery in 2003, the video was included in a film programme based on experimental films by Maya Deren, curated by the Loop collective, Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film and Video, Toronto, 2003 and was shown as part of the Picton, Ontario film festival, Cinifest-Minifest, 2003.