Other of Pearl
Created in collaboration with master printer Luther Davis and the team at Powerhouse Arts, this diptych shows two film stills from the 1922 silent film Down to the Sea in Ships: the "heroic" image of a whaling ship and the ephemeral moment when the harpooned whale looks back at the whalers who pull it from the water. The film, set and filmed in New Bedford, MA—the heart of the whaling industry—showed actual scenes of whaling, including the harpooning and butchering of whales. These two frames of the film were selected by the artist, printed on a special water transfer film and "caught" from the water bath onto an iridescent, lacquered mother-of-pearl background.
This diptych was created as a benefit print to support the 2024 public art exhibition Other of Pearl on Governors Island. For inquiries on remaining prints, please reach out to the studio.