Erola Arcalís Shipwreck Studies Arcadia Fireweed Daguerréotype Los ausentes Rehearsing the Real Lethe about
Shipwreck Studies is inspired by a collection of found objects that used to belong to my great-grandfather. A craftsman and a man of unconventional thinking, his last project was the building of a 26 meters long ship that was to become a communal living space. The vessel, made with reclaimed materials from the sea, was to remain moored in the middle of a rocky field in the island of Menorca.
Just some years after its construction in the seventies, an unexpected fire destroyed it. Different stories are shared about the cause, but whether provoked or accidental, the flames burnt the ship almost entirely, leaving only a few traces of the little utopia. Thirty years on I went back to the same place and gathered few of the flotsam, wreckage and surviving objects with the intention to transform them into a series of sculptures.
Just some years after its construction in the seventies, an unexpected fire destroyed it. Different stories are shared about the cause, but whether provoked or accidental, the flames burnt the ship almost entirely, leaving only a few traces of the little utopia. Thirty years on I went back to the same place and gathered few of the flotsam, wreckage and surviving objects with the intention to transform them into a series of sculptures.
A vessel settled
in a meadow
of asphodel
glass and dry fennel
[all memories dissolve]
in a meadow
of asphodel
glass and dry fennel
[all memories dissolve]
Vessel I, X, V, VII, II, III, VIII, IX
silver gelatin prints
27 x 35 cm
silver gelatin prints
27 x 35 cm
Paco Preto building his last ship on a rocky field, 1971
family archive
family archive
Erola Arcalís Shipwreck Studies Arcadia Fireweed Daguerréotype Los Ausentes Rehearsing the Real Lethe about