I moved to a new studio in Woolwich, in July of last year. Iris immediately caught my eye; reflecting the brightness of the London sky, I saw her beauty but also a kind of strange misfortune. She was a beautiful intruder in the sharp and linear urban landscape of the Woolwich Studios.  In passing, I began to stop closer each time and for longer, feeling increasingly emotionally attached as if she was becoming a new friend. In French a boat is masculine (le bateau) and I was positively surprised to hear that in England Iris was a lady, with her large hips and inner maturity.

I decided to adopt her into my new scenes of work. Looking at Iris, new thoughts and emotions have stimulated my practice. Over the last few years it has expanded to the edges of abstraction and landscape.

It is obviously my artistic vision that brought me to love a boat, once a fixture in Liverpool, as I was about to discover.

One day in January an office worker on the site told me, « We’ve had enough of seeing her here, it is now more than twelve years, she does not belong here. Anyway, she is a wreck, she should be taken to the scrap yard. »

I started fearing for her and strangely enough, for myself as well. How similar am I to her as this point? Too old, useless, not wanted…but so compelling. My reaction was almost instantaneous: I was going to dedicate my show in Mayfair to the Lady. The show took on another dimension when I discovered the Liverpool side of the story. People started to share with me their passion, their experiences and love for the boat.  People from Merseyside have been contacting me since an article about the show was published in the Liverpool Echo (14th. March). I met the actual owner who wants her stay in London where he promised she will have a fantastic future…I am glad to have revived memories and passions with my chosen subject.

In this show I do not claim but rather reinvent Iris’s journey, aiming only to expand her story into my work and the outside world, the so-called reality.