Ellie Harrison’s crazy golf hole, Life Raft, was created as part of a set of nine designed by different artists for Doug Fishbone’s Leisure Land Golf – an interactive exhibition presented at the Venice Biennale in 2015 as a collateral event. Life Raft features a scale map of Britain, designed to be floated in a Venetian canal or alternate body of water.
As the final hole in the course, participants are invited to hit a golf ball from a small platform representing the coast of France to see if they can land safely on British soil. This is a playful and symbolic act that has taken on a much darker tone as the refugee crisis in the Channel has escalated.
Following the Venice Biennale, Doug Fishbone’s Leisure Land Golf toured to New Art Exchange in Nottingham, QUAD in Derby and York Art Gallery in 2016 – 2017 before the golf course was disbanded. The other golf holes by artists John Akomfrah, Yara El-Sherbini, Candice Jacobs, Hetain Patel, Lindsay Seers, Yinka Shonibare and Eyal & Ines Weizman (from Forensic Architecture) were all destroyed. Only Doug Fishbone’s and Ellie Harrison’s now remain in existence. Harrison has exhibited Life Raft in London as a standalone piece as part of a group exhibition Rising at Bethnal Green Church, and in 2025 as part of the Winter Sculpture Park. It is currently in storage at Upminster Containers in Essex.
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