Do the Little Things - Jake Lever
The starting point
‘Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things.’
St David 589 AD
Through the pandemic, I have wanted to connect with people I care about, but have often found myself lost for words, unsure what to say. Instead, I turned to making tiny golden boats, sending them to people by post as a kind of silent, wordless communication, heart to heart.
These voyages have begun to form a web of connection and many others have started to join in, sending their boats to family and friends across the globe. Collaborating with others, I plan to map these journeys as a visual expression of our universal human need for belonging and connection.
Take part
To join in, purchase a boat from our website shop and this will be sent to you by post. Prices have been worked out to enable as many people as possible to participate. The ‘UK Full Price’ is for anyone ordering from the mainland UK, whilst the ‘International Price’ is for those ordering who live overseas. A limited number of boats are available at no charge, thanks to the support of a private donation. The 'no charge' boats can be requested by messaging Jake via the contact page.
Send your boat
Next, you will need to send the boat by post to the person you wish to connect with, recycling the box that it arrived in. The box requires no additional packaging and is suitable to send anywhere in the world. There will be a statement written by Jake to send explaining about the artwork, but you may want to include your own personal message as well.
Mapping the journeys
As part of this ongoing project Jake is collecting information on the destinations of boats. If you and the recipient of the boat agree to sharing this, please get in touch with Jake via the contact page, indicating the starting point (the name of the village/town/city) and destination of the boat. Jake will gild the lines of each journey in gold on a map of the world. Updates on the development of the project will be posted in the stories section of the website. Please see our privacy policy to see how we collect and manage the information you provide when you purchase a boat.
Video
Navigating the Dark: a conversation between Jake Lever and Dr Paula Gooder, Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, London, hosted by HeartEdge. Jake speaks about this project in the context of his art practice. View the video on Youtube here.