Solitary Survival Raft

Toy like switches control an air pump that inflates and deflates a membrane, creating a buffer between the occupant and the world. With the machines' help, human and machine team together becoming fictional conservationists; her body a sort of seed vault and storage facility preserving the very sense that's under threat – touch

Solitary Survival Raft is a machine that comforts a single body as they drift into the unknown. This artwork explores how we can reconcile the human urge to explore new frontiers, while tending to fear. The raft is an exploration of where we are at, rather than a demonstration of survival – do you drop off the edge when you reach the horizon or merge closer to truth when you give fear the cold shoulder?

“I consider my job to be that of an interpreter; tune into subtle signals and translate them– the world is giving off a fuzzy signal and overwhelming sense of uncertainty. How can we occupy various edges, remain equanimous and resist our ingrained chase for stability”?

Commissioned by Haus der elektronischen Künste (HeK), Basel and MU Hybrid Art House, Eindhoven for Real Feelings

Commissioned by Haus der elektronischen Künste (HeK) and MU Hybrid Art House for Real Feelings

Curated by Sabine Himmelsbach, Angelique Spaniks, Ariane Koek, Boris Magrini

Credits

Artist – Lucy McRae

Creative Producer – Alice Parker

Soft goods – Anjia Jalac

Machine – Machine Histories

Senior Designer – Tina Joyner

Photography – Ariel Fisher

Post production – Minah Kim, Fiona Ng

Set assistant – Gregory Kokkotis

Special thanks to MAAS and Het Nieuwe Instituut and Keinton Butler and Angela Rui, the original commissioners and curators of Compression Cradle that inspired the raft

SOLITARY SURVIVAL RAFT

With some historic sensibility one could see Lucy McRae's Solitary Survival Raft as an early 21st century descendant of the Titanic or even Gericault's Scene de Naufrage better known as The Raft of The Medusa. This time it is not a group of wealthy travelers seeking to build an even better life on another continent nor a bunch of cannibalistic surviving colonial sailors – but a single individual, feeling out and enduring the waves of a hyperreal disruptive time

– Angelique Spaninks MU Hybrid Art Space