Float Your Boat: Seagull with Chip

Float Your Boat is an annual winter event held at Lake Macquarie held around the time of Winter Solstice. It’s a wonderful two-day event that revolves around a floating parade of illuminated boats and vessels, creatively decorated with lights by local artists and boat owners. In 2025, I was awarded an artist commission by Lake Macquarie City Council to create a light-based artwork – my theme; a seagull stealing chips.

I chose this theme because it represents playful and somewhat chaotic moments of time spent by Lake Macquarie with my family. The scenario of us sitting lake-side with a hot lunch, only for a flock of seagulls to swoop in and steal a chip, is a humorous memory that resonates deeply with me, and one that I believed would strike a chord with other locals.

Process

After consultation with the Cultural Projects Curator and Events and Festival Officer at Lake Macquarie City Council, I began to develop my concept within the specific constraints of creating a light art installation for a moving boat. The materials used included waterproof LED rope lights, repurposed corflute, conduit for structure, and geomesh as the foundation for artwork.

With the understanding that the public would be viewing this installation from about 100+ meters away, I had to ensure that the image of a seagull was as simple and recognisable as possible. So to do a bit of research, my two young sons and I went on a “field trip” to the lake, armed with a fresh box of hot chips to lure the seagulls close so I could take some photos. Those birds did not disappoint and I got some fabulous shots!

From those photos I developed a sketch, translated it into a scalable vector, and printed out 3x3 meter template to cut the final shape from repurposed corflute sheets. Corflute provided a lightweight, sturdy base to secure the rope lighting with accuracy, and allowed me to add sections of colour to enhance the definition of the seagull’s features.

Installation

The final work was assembled on-site at Empire Marina, Marmong Point, with beautiful weather, lakeside views, and the wonderful company of my eldest son. The corflute base and LED lights were zip-tied to a layer of geomesh. The edges were reinforced with conduit pipe to reinforce the artwork and to protect the surface of the houseboat it was mounted on.

With the help of on-site electricians, the illuminated seagull was installed on the side of a houseboat and launched as part of the flotilla parade. Once the lights switched on for opening night, the seagull floated across Lake Macquarie for two magical nights with thousands of spectators watching from shore at the live sites held at Toronto and Warners Bay.