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The Boat

"Little Empty Boat" Nick Cave and the Bad Seed
But my little boat is empty It don't go And my oar is broken It don't row, row, row
But my little boat is empty It don't go

 "White Flag" Dido
I know you think that I shouldn't still love you, Or tell you that. But if I didn't say it, well I'd still have felt it where's the sense in that?
I promise I'm not trying to make your life harder Or return to where we were
I will go down with this ship And I won't put my hands up and surrender There will be no white flag above my door I'm in love and always will be

“The Ship Song” Nick Cave and the Bad Seed
Come sail your ships around me And burn your bridges down We make a little history, baby Every time you come around

The boat is constructed from approximately 65 460 matchsticks, on which the words ‘I Love Her’ was written on all four sides (approximately 261 840 times).

This work focuses on two main ideas, the metaphor of the boat as the love between two people, sailing a river of life and the obsessive nature with which the writing and construction has been carried out.

The metaphor of the ‘love boat’ traversing an ocean can be found in various examples in contemporary love songs. Through this work this metaphor is made physical. Where the fragile matchstick construction mirrors the fragility of the love between two people and the match’s potential for fire becomes passion. The river carrying the boat, becomes life, through which the relationship has to navigate calm water as well as raging torrents while keeping together those it carries. Here, the water as a base element, stands in direct opposition to the element of fire, as
once was said “there is love and its enemy life”.

The obsessive nature with which ‘I Love Her’ was written reverences aspects of Calvinism, which dictates that one should suffer for what one loves and in this case it is the obsessive love by the man for the woman that comes to the foreground. However it is not the negative aspects of obsessive love that is focused on here, but rather a more passive waiting game being called out to prove the man’s dedication to his beloved.