The Mod­el has cre­at­ed a dig­i­tal expe­ri­ence of ​‘The Sea Around Us while the exhi­bi­tion is closed to the public

The Sea Around Us 

John Akom­frah (GH/GB), Foren­sic Oceanog­ra­phy and Foren­sic Archi­tec­ture (GB), Shaun Glad­well (AU), Karen Pow­er (IE), Susanne M. Win­ter­ling (DE)

Curat­ed by Emer McGarry

The sea offers us the idea of the infi­nite, the unknow­able. A huge expanse that invites us to won­der about the lim­its of our world and real­i­ty. The sea has been a source of inspi­ra­tion to artists, thinkers and writ­ers for hun­dreds of years – its some­time seren­i­ty jux­ta­posed with its sub­lime ter­ri­fy­ing pow­er. The sea’s seem­ing­ly inex­haustible abun­dance and the promise of what lies beyond, have invit­ed humankind to strike out in explo­ration in an effort to under­stand its vast­less­ness, and to enrich them­selves with the knowl­edge, sus­te­nance and trea­sure they find out there.

The sheer immen­si­ty of the sea, means it can­not be seen as a clear-cut theme or top­ic that can be eas­i­ly explained or under­stood. It has many aspects, and our rela­tion­ship with it is com­plex and con­tra­dic­to­ry. The sea is a chan­nel that enables com­mu­ni­ca­tion and trade, and that casts knowl­edge and ideas up on many dis­tant shores. While the sea is a source of life and abun­dance, it is also a grave­yard, not only for ancient civ­i­liza­tions, but for the many who brave­ly risk its depths in search of peace today. Life with­in the sea, which once seemed so lim­it­less, has fall­en vic­tim to the actions of the Anthro­pocene age, and the effects of this are becom­ing more sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly clear all the time.

The works in this exhi­bi­tion invite the view­er to con­sid­er the sea as a set­ting where a mul­ti­plic­i­ty of most­ly unseen and unknown dra­mas are played out, dra­mas that are at times non-human and at times inhu­mane. Through these visu­al and sound-based works, we invite you to con­tem­plate the ebb and flow of the ocean, and humankind’s mul­ti-faceted rela­tion­ship with it.

The show is accom­pa­nied by a new music per­for­mance and sound instal­la­tion by com­pos­er and sound artist Karen Pow­er, and a spe­cial­ly com­mis­sioned essay by artist Rosie O’Reilly (IE).

Emer McGar­ry, cura­tor, 2020

The Mod­el has cre­at­ed a dig­i­tal expe­ri­ence of The Sea Around Us while the exhi­bi­tion is closed to the public

https://​www​.yumpu​.com/​e​n​/​d​o​c​u​m​e​n​t​/​r​e​a​d​/​6​3​1​5​8​9​6​2​/​t​h​e​-​s​e​a​-​a​r​o​u​n​d​-​u​s​-​o​n​l​i​n​e​-​c​a​t​a​logue