Vertigo Sea, 2015

John Akomfrah
Vertigo Sea, 2015
3 channel video installation, colour, sound
38 minutes
Film still

Overview

Premiering at the Venice Biennale 2015, Vertigo Sea is a new three-screen film installation forming a meditation on whaling, the environment and our relationship with the sea. Part fiction, nature documentary and essay on marine aesthetics; shot on the Scottish island of Skye, the Faroe Isles and the Northern regions of Norway, the film references what Ralph Waldo Emerson called, ‘the sublime seas’. The film also continues the ‘recycled aesthetic’ of John Akomfrah’s last two gallery pieces by fusing archival material, originally shot footage and readings from classical sources.

A Smoking Dogs Film Production with special thanks to Sharjah Art Foundation; BBC Natural History Unit; British Film Institute; Arts Council of England; Baltic Arts Centre, Sweden; Bildmuseet , Sweden; Swedish Arts Council; and Tyneside Cinema Gallery.

This film was made in association with the Sharjah Art Foundation.

Supported by:

BBC Natural History Unit
Arts Council England
British Film Institute
Baltic Art Centre
Bildmuseet in Umea
Swedish Arts Council

With kind support from Tyneside Cinema and Naxos Audio Books.

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Vertigo Sea

Akomfrah, John

John Akomfrah delves into themes of memory, identity, postcolonialism, temporality and the politics of aesthetics through his experimentations with the moving image.