The Endeavour

The Endeavour explores the craft of shipbuilding which defined the recent industrial past of North East England, and evokes its intricate connection with historical protest and the labour movement in the UK. An immersive audiovisual installation is at the centre of the project in which Mikhail Karikis focuses on the last boatyard in the north of the country in the weeks before its closure. The two-channel video observes in intimate detail the old boatbuilder’s choreographed craftsmanship, the unfamiliar tools of his trade, the textures of the boatyard after years of exposure to the tides, and the community of retired shipbuilders gathering around the make-shift stove. The cacophony of the boatyard is juxtaposed with a local choir reciting a roll call of seemingly “nonsense” words corresponding to the names of obsolete professions, while a harmonica player performs the minstrel song Swanee River that was played by the local shipyard workers of the iconic Jarrow Crusade on their long march to London in 1936.

Commissioned by The Gallery, Tyneside Cinema, UK. Featuring Fred Crowell, Alan Woods, Noize Choir, Tom Pattinson.