Teeing up an art show

Once described as “a stand-up conceptual artist”, Doug Fishbone understands how to use humour to make a serious point.

This is evident in one of his most recent projects Leisureland Golf which the American-born London-based artist is hoping to bring to York Art Gallery’s outdoor space the Artists Garden this summer. First shown at the Venice Biennale in 2015, Leisureland Golf is a fully playable mini-golf course with each hole created by a different renowned contemporary artist – including Yinka Shonibare, Ellie Harrison and John Akomfrah OBE – and covering pressing current issues such as migration, global warming and globalisation.

York Art Gallery is in the process of raising funds through the Art Fund’s crowd-funding platform Art Happens and needs to secure £10,000 by March 23 to ensure that the work comes to the city. “I think it would work perfectly in the Artists Garden,” says Fishbone. “It is such a good setting for it.” It is hoped that the installation will transform the space into a playful and tactile environment and at the same time take visitors on an amusing yet thought-provoking journey as they navigate the course. It is actually the second time that Fishbone has used mini-golf as a template.

“I made a course a few years prior to this one for a music festival,” he says. “I felt that mini-golf has an amazing artistic potential. I thought it would be a fun thing and a challenge for the artists because not only is it a sculpture but it is also functional.”

Later when the opportunity arose to create a piece for the Biennale, Fishbone decided to revisit the idea. “I thought it would work well as a sculpture in action,” he says. “And it was a great privilege to collaborate with artists at this level – they have provided works that contain potent political messages but without being too pedantic or overbearing. The challenge when you are working with political themes is that it can often get preachy, but working with mini-golf means that even if people don’t cotton on to the politics they are still having fun.”

Fishbone’s own piece in Leisureland Golf, SOS 2015, depicts the ill-fated cruise ship Costa Concordia which capsized and sank off the coast of Tuscany in January 2012 with the loss of 33 lives. The captain was later found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

“I thought it was an interesting symbol as a metaphor for the insane leadership in the world,” says Fishbone. “And also of the tourist industry as something quite complex – yes, it is nice for people to go on a cruise, but it is hugely polluting.” It also touches on other troubling, contradictory aspects of the tourism industry. “While some people are enjoying the cruise, others are toiling away – there is a kind of melancholia that’s indicative of capitalism.”

While the individual works are thematically linked – and all contain serious observations about modern life – the course also gives the piece as a whole a powerful integrity, while maintaining its inherent entertainment value. “It pulls together conceptually, but for me using humour and a lighter touch has always been a central strategy,” says Fishbone. “It is a useful way of getting people to spend time with your work. It doesn’t dumb things down – the aim is to be quite satirical, open and engaging.”

It is hoped Leisureland Golf will be in York, June 2-September 3. To donate visit www.artfund.org/art-happens