ADRIFT -2022  – after Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa

Burnt Shiplap boards, rope, cleats, wool dyed with food dye, hand holds, framed image – 11′ x 5.5′ x variable

ADRIFT – details

For Adrift, I was inspired by The Raft of the Medusa, an iconic painting of French Romanticism from 1816 by Gericault. This painting is a depiction of  a historic incident of extreme brutality and desperation set in motion by misplaced leadership and put in place by political favors and colonial conquest. After the Medusa Frigate ran aground off the coast of Senegal, a fleet of boats escaped towing a slap-dash raft of one hundred and fifty mercantile solders.

I became especially interested in moments where thoughtfulness unraveled and the raft was cast adrift by mistake or authority. In desperation, many of raft’s occupants wanted to cut it apart, while others fought to hold it together. There was nothing to hold on to, and people struggled to escape falling off. In the end, only thirteen of  the one hundred and fifty survived on the raft. This seems a foreboding metaphor for a divided political atmosphere dealing with an escalating environmental crisis, where there is a decided lack of leadership, disinterest, and miscommunication for the common good.

As I worked this piece, I started to think of the raft as a precarious loom or weaving, tossed about by beautiful yet toxic scraps. As an installation artist, I find inspiration in fabric and color, and yet the textile industry is one of the world’s largest polluters. Bangladesh, as a center of textile manufacture, has polluted its rivers with synthetic petroleum-based dyes, so there is little clean water. Ironically, Bengalis were masters of natural dye recipes that are now mostly lost in a captive colonial market.

In this piece I was also thinking about indigenous creation myths in which the land or water is a life force to be respected. Have historic acts of colonial takeover disassociated people from awe, connection, and respect of place? With this backdrop, how do we move from a place of overuse to a place of repair? Where are the lines between self-interest and ecological preservation? Where do we find focus for the common good? We ingest and are seeped in our own ecology, and yet find it difficult to grab a hold.

-Kate Ruddle

Raft of the Medusa – Jean Louis Théodore Géricault

The Louvre – Paris, France