The great 18th-century English landscape gardener Lancelot “Capability” Brown acquired his can-do nickname because he used frequently to speak of what he called the “capabilities” of the land of his aristocratic employers and could tell them of the transformations promised. Walking through his parkland at Compton Verney, a Robert Adam house in Warwickshire – now an art gallery – the lake is indolently still as if it knew better than to stir in the summer heat, and it’s tempting to imagine how gratified its creator would be by Crossings and the beautiful way in which multidisciplinary artist Luke Jerram, in collaboration with Radio 4 producer Julian May, has identified new capability within the landscape.
Nine rowing boats, freshly painted, wait by the water’s edge. There is a list of 10 stories – a multifarious anthology, mostly about journeying by boat on water – on a board on the bank. Each story is given a couple of sentences – you have to choose just one. You then take out a boat with your story (the boats are equipped with speakers and can accommodate four people at most). Each story lasts 20 minutes and the outing takes half an hour. Row, row, row your boat gently across the … I listen to the testimony of gallant Iranian Mana Azarish, who, aged 13, when her father’s courage failed him, guided a boat of refugees across the Channel. She was as lost as she was brave: “How do I know the boat is going the right direction?” she asked. She was told to follow a star – a biblical instruction.
