Allan Sekula: Ship of Fools

American artist Allan Sekula provides the second instalment of the Social Documents programme at the Stills. Continuing to challenge the ethics of society, this time it is the societies created through the sea whose exploitation is under question.

Ship of Fools forms the first part of the exhibition, which exists as a series of large-scale chromogenic photographs and an extended essay. The photographic full-length portraits of seafarers and labourers aboard the ship, the Global Mariner, are effectively presented as documents in the traditional sense; reminiscent of the working class portraits complied by August Sander. The series tells the story of the Global Mariner, not as a romantic or exciting expedition but in the bleak reality of produce and commerce across the ocean, and the people who are ultimately defined by their position on the ship and life at sea.

Collected maritime objects displayed throughout the gallery and the collaborative film, The Forgotten Space, support the photographs. Sekula uses the imagery of countless crates to directly alert the audience of the crisis of global commercialisation, with a narrative voice reiterating the worrying affect this has on ship labourers, working conditions and market exchange.

The show, as intended, is thought provoking, presenting the sea as a space of trade and controversy, which is often overlooked due to its romantic or sublime stigma. Although critical in nature, the photographs and film are beautifully shot, thus the awe-inspiring power of the sea is not done an injustice, whilst remaining ultimately informative.