VERTIGO SEA - JOHN AKOMFRAH

---

Vertigo Sea was an exhibition on at Arnolfini which included 3 mammoth screens displaying documentary clips of the sea, polar bear hunting, whale hunting, slavery, migration and the beauty under the sea. The installation was really unique in how it was displayed and became a really immersive experience that couldn't be replicated through a video recording. I found Akomfrah's ideas behind the film really inspirational as it invites us to reflect upon humans and our relationship with the sea as it shows different ways we interact with the sea such as a past death sentence; when people were sentenced to death they would be taken in an airplane, stripped naked and thrown into the sea. The words spoken above the imagery is very powerful and i'm interested how spoken word can change the view of art. The work also contains ideas about the cruelty of the whaling industry an the current refugee crisis.