Wu Tsang
Of Whales
21 February – 11 June 2023
In February 2023, TBA21 presents Of Whales, an exhibition by American artist Wu Tsang. TBA21 showcases a multi-part project created by the artist drawing from her research around Herman Melville’s classic American novel Moby-Dick, tackling its subterranean currents. The work will be presented on the occasion of a solo exhibition at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. The exhibition will be centered around Of Whales (2022) in a unique and immersive display, following its premiere at the Venice Biennale.
Of Whales, an immersive real-time video installation that offers a poetic meditation on the whale’s perspective, through a deep dive into an oceanic cosmos that is alluded to in Herman Melville’s tale. First presented at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, the work was created on the Unity gaming platform as a dynamically generated real-time video and sound installation, which envelops visitors in an oceanscape-cosmos for respite, contemplation, and provocation.
Of Whales refocuses the source material’s profound meditation on knowledge, exoticism, and eroticism through a postcolonial lens, imagined from the perspective of the whale. The immensity of the ocean becomes a symbol of the unknown; reflections gesture to the presence of oblique perspectives and complexify the idea that any point of view is singular or straightforward.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive public program in collaboration with Wu Tsang, EducaThyssen, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, and Institute for Postnatural Studies, amongst others.
OPENING PERFORMANCE MOBY DICK; OR, THE WHALE (2022)
Tsang’s approach pairs the classic story of the whaler's “floating factory” with the beginnings of the film industry in silent film. The film was shot entirely on a sound-stage combining silent-era filmmaking techniques with Virtual Production, a virtual reality game engine projecting surreal ocean environments.
The story of Moby-Dick chronicles the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of a whaling ship who seeks revenge on a giant albino sperm whale that bit off his leg. It is a legend that everyone knows, but few people reflect on its significance today. The story is saturated with problems and reflections of its time—but also of our present. Tsang’s surreal adaptation recontextualizes this epic allegorical drama, exploring themes of labor and desire through a post-colonial lens.
The narrative is interwoven with extracts by the Sub-Sub-Librarian, a character played by acclaimed poet Fred Moten, and tackles the novel's subterranean currents, encountering the resistance of the ship’s hydrarchy, or organizational structure, and collectives of “mariners, renegades, and castaways,” as described by historian CLR James. Exploring overlapping histories of industrialism, extractivism, colonialism, ecological and spiritual crises, the film creates a multi-layered surreal filmic adaptation of the 1851 novel.
The film features original orchestral music composed by Caroline Shaw and Andrew Yee with Asma Maroof. The costumes are designed by TELFAR.
MOBY DICK; or, The Whale is produced by Schauspielhaus Zurich in collaboration with Zürcher Kammerorchester (ZKO). TBA21–Academy is co-commissioning this work with LUMA Foundation, Superblue, Hartwig Art Foundation, The Shed, DE SINGEL and The Whitney Museum of American Art.
