Vinegar & Piss

I am looking into the basement gallery of the Sunday Painter. The ceiling goes up two storeys. I can see the glass of the shopfront windows, way up there. I can’t really step into the space of the gallery itself — almost all of it is taken up by a huge wooden boat. It’s swollen, wall to wall to wall and floor to ceiling (probably). My Mum is standing next to me and we look together, bottom to the top. It is so big, it makes us so small. ‘Big boat’ // ‘Fucking massive’ // ‘Don’t swear.’ It’s Dominic Watson’s Vinegar and Piss. It is a massive ship made of wood reclaimed from old Wendy houses. The timber is laid in panels, all pink and blue and treated to withstand the weather. There are dead leaves and splinters and spiderwebs all caught in corners. You can walk through the boat. The panels bounce and bow, underfoot and through my shoes I can feel the actual construction of it. The playhouse windows line up with the ceiling, so gallery spot lights beam down into the dark belly of the…