Caroline Bergvall’s African Immigrants, Lost at Sea

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Martah Schwendener
“Seafarer,” electronic text by Caroline Bergvall collaborating with Thomas Köppel (2014), is part of an installation of prints, sound works and a digital, algorithmic collage, at Callicoon. Credit Courtesy of the artist and Callicoon Fine Arts, NY.
NEW YORK---One of the blockbusters of Western art history, Théodore Géricault’sThe Raft of the Medusa” (1818-19), took as its impetus the true story of sailors left to die at sea, drifting on a raft off the coast of Senegal. Caroline Bergvall’s “Drift,” an installation of prints, sound works and a digital, algorithmic collage, was inspired by a similar tale, only set in the present day. The best things here are the sound works, with their poetic incantations, and some of the prints. A monitor displaying scrambled text from the report on the African boat looks too much like a graphic design project. [link]

Callicoon Fine Arts 
49 Delancey Street, near Eldridge Street 
Lower East Side 
Through Feb. 15

Comments

Géricault’s epic painting critiqued everything from the slave trade to the restoration of the monarchy but the message was clear as a punch in the face. On the other-hand, the minimalism of Caroline Bergvall's “Drift” leaves viewers wihout a clear path. Siil, I would prefer to live with the seemingly disconnected allusions of the electronic text “Seafarer.”