BRISTOL.- Arnolfini hosts the UK premier of John Akomfrah’s acclaimed video installation Vertigo Sea.
The three-screen film, first seen at the 56th Venice Biennale as part of Okwui Enwezor’s All the World’s Futures exhibition, is a sensual, poetic and cohesive meditation on man’s relationship with the sea and exploration of its role in the history of slavery, migration, and conflict. Fusing archival material, readings from classical sources, and newly shot footage, the work explicitly highlights the greed, horror and cruelty of the whaling industry. This material is then juxtaposed with shots of African migrants crossing the ocean in a journey fraught with danger in hope of a better life and thus delivering a timely and potent reminder of the current issues around global migration, the refugee crisis, slavery, alongside ecological concerns.
Shot on the Isle of Skye, the Faroe Islands and the Northern regions of Norway, with the BBC’s Bristol based Natural History Unit, Vertigo Sea draws upon two remarkable books: Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1851) and Heathcote Williams’ epic poem Whale Nation (1988), a harrowing and inspiring work which charts the history, intelligence and majesty of the largest mammal on earth.
John Akomfrah is an artist and filmmaker whose works are characterised by their investigations into personal and collective histories and memory, cultural, ethnic and personal identity, postcolonialism and temporality. Importantly, his focus is most often on giving voice to the experience of the African diaspora in Europe and the USA. A public programme will accompany the exhibition including work with local youth groups and community groups.
After showing in Bristol, Vertigo Sea will tour nationally as part of the ACE Strategic Touring Programme that has been awarded to Arnolfini as the tour leader. The exhibition will be shown at Turner Contemporary in Margate and Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, with other potential venues to be announced shortly.
Arnolfini’s exhibition coincides with an exhibition of new and recent work at Lisson Gallery, London, from 22 January – 5 March 2016, and Akomfrah’s first with the gallery.
Akomfrah was born in Ghana in 1957 and lives and works in London. He was a founding member of the influential Black Audio Film Collective, which started in London in 1982 alongside the artists David Lawson and Lina Gopaul, whom he still collaborates with today. Akomfrah has recently been shortlisted for the Artes Mundi 7 prize. His work has been shown in museums and exhibitions around the world including the Liverpool Biennial; Documenta 11, Kassel; the De Balie, Amsterdam; Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Serpentine Gallery; Tate; Whitechapel Art Gallery; and Southbank Centre, London; and MoMA, New York. A major retrospective of Akomfrah’s gallery-based work with the Black Audio Film Collective premiered at FACT, Liverpool and Arnolfini, Bristol in 2007. His films have been included in international film festivals such as Cannes, Toronto, Sundance, amongst others.
