John Akomfrah Vertigo Sea

EXHIBITION GUIDE
John Akomfrah
Vertigo Sea
Saturday 16 January – Sunday 10 April 2016

ARNOLFINI
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INTRODUCTION
Vertigo Sea is a solo exhibition of two new works by
internationally acclaimed artist and filmmaker, John
Akomfrah. His films address important themes through
a rich, multi-layered visual style that is both poetic and
political. Placing archival film footage alongside still
photography and new material, the artist investigates
complex relationships between memory, identity,
mortality, and filmmaking.
At the heart of the exhibition, on Level 1, is a recent
48-minute long film installation Vertigo Sea from
which the exhibition takes its title. On the Ground
Floor in Gallery 1, a new work Tropikos is shown
as a companion piece. Both works are particularly
relevant for presentation here and now. They relate
strongly to Bristol’s maritime history and its links
to the transatlantic slave trade, as well as pressing
issues related to the global migration of refugees and
ecological concerns.
The exhibition opens with Tropikos (2016), a costume
drama set in the 16th century. Exploring the point in
history when Britain’s economic exploitation of Africa
began, this work focuses on the waterways of the
South West and their relationship to the slave trade,
referencing larger themes of colonialism, maritime
power and loss.
Vertigo Sea, a powerful three-screen film installation,
invites us to reflect upon humankind’s relationship

with the sea. The artist describes the work as a eulogy,
commemorating lives lost at sea. It is a work that
takes the viewer on an immersive journey touching
on the greed and cruelty of the whaling industry, the
transatlantic slave trade and the current refugee crisis.
Part fiction, part natural history documentary, Vertigo
Sea fuses archival footage with newly shot material
and readings from classic literature to create a moving
narrative. The film could be described as a tapestry of
empathy: a compelling web of interrelated concerns,
histories and traumas connecting to our interactions
with the sea.
GALLERY 1
Tropikos, 2016
Single channel video, colour, sound, 36 minutes 40 seconds, looped.
A 70th Anniversary Commission for the Arts Council Collection, Southbank
Centre London, with the River Tamar Project and Smoking Dogs Films.
© Smoking Dogs Films. Courtesy Lisson Gallery.
Taken together, these two lyrical and melancholic films
propose a ‘voyage of discovery’ and a meditation on
water and the unconscious, looking specifically at the
passage of migration into the UK.
John Akomfrah, Tropikos (film still), 2016.
© Smoking Dogs Films. Courtesy Lisson Gallery.
Situated in Plymouth and the Tamar Valley – locations
with significant, though largely forgotten connections
with the expansion of European power and influence –
Tropikos is an experimental drama set in the 16th century.
John Akomfrah, Vertigo Sea (film still), 2015.
© Smoking Dogs Films. Courtesy Lisson Gallery.
Akomfrah’s starting point for the film was the
connection between the waterways of the South West
and the slave trade. In this film, the river landscape is
transformed into an historic English port to re-imagine
some of the first British encounters with people from

Africa. Though a fictional narrative, the film is placed in
a period when Britain’s position as a global, seafaring
power coincided with the enforced displacement of
millions of African people across the Atlantic. It reflects
on the emergence of the ‘New World’ and the bleak
history of the British Empire.
The first English expeditions to the West African
Guinea coast, in the mid-sixteenth century, departed
from Plymouth initially in search of gold but quickly
became involved in the trade and transport of
enslaved people to America. A group of enslaved
Africans were also brought to Plymouth by Captain
William Towerson at around the same time, as exhibits,
rather than captives.
The film draws on the writings of a number of
historical seafarers, whilst also referencing classic
literature, specifically Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) and
Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1611). Akomfrah uses these
texts to create a layered setting for the piece. The film
uses an approach based loosely on playwright Bertolt
Brecht’s notion of ‘epic theatre’. Epic theatre uses a
range of theatrical devices to remind the audience
that they are not watching real life but a dramatised
version of it, allowing viewers to make considered
judgements about issues raised by the work. Adopting
the costumes and mannerisms of the sixteenth century,
the actors in the film appear in a series of tableaux
vivantes, or living pictures, which feel both archaic and
imaginary. African and European locations, characters
and goods overlap with each other, as a representation
of the faded traces of stories that we are asked to
re-imagine.
In Bristol’s own history as a trading port, the
transatlantic slave trade lasted around 100 years,
reliant on the trafficking of human beings to trade in
goods and raw commodities, bringing wealth to few
and sorrow and death to millions.
John Akomfrah, Tropikos (film still), 2016.
© Smoking Dogs Films. Courtesy Lisson Gallery.

GALLERY 2, 3, AND 4
Vertigo Sea, 2015
Three channel video installation, original format HD,
colour, sound, 48 minutes, looped.
© Smoking Dogs Films. Courtesy Lisson Gallery.
John Akomfrah, Vertigo Sea (film still), 2015.
© Smoking Dogs Films. Courtesy Lisson Gallery.
“I wanted to make a work that
spoke to [these] concerns of
memory, of historicity, migration
and possible futures”.
John Akomfrah, 2015
The sea is a reoccurring motif in John Akomfrah’s
work, providing a rich source material through which
his interest in movement and displacement can be
explored. Vertigo Sea is presented as an expanded
visual ‘essay’, an approach that uses images and the
relationship between them to explore themes or
create narratives.
The inspiration for the work came from a radio interview
with a group of young Nigerian migrants who had
survived an illegal crossing of the Mediterranean. They
expressed the feeling of being faced by something
vaster and more awesome than they had thought
possible. While the sea is mesmerising, universally
compelling and beautiful, it is also a uniquely
inhospitable environment. It is difficult for us, as
humans used to having control over our surroundings,
to grasp the enormity of this constantly changing
element, and the word ‘vertigo’ perhaps refers to this
unfathomable reach.
To create the film, Akomfrah edited together footage
from a wide range of sources and periods, an approach
that he has developed over the course of his career,
which dates back to early work that he made in the
1980s as part of the Black Audio Film Collective. He
has described the act of ‘image taking’ – capturing
an image of the present for the future – as having an
‘almost sacred’ aspect, in that it assures an afterlife.
In handling this material there is great responsibility,
since the role of the artist or editor becomes that of a
custodian of our future.

The dreamlike quality of Vertigo Sea mirrors the
subject of the piece. Shot on the Isle of Skye, in the
Faroe Islands and Northern regions of Norway, the
film depicts the exceptional beauty of the aquatic
world. The BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol
supported the development of the work with unique
access to its archive, presenting the ocean as a
primordial life source. However, the underpinning
themes are of bereavement, suffering and dislocation:
a cultural history of mankind at sea as both victims
and perpetrators.
In an early section of the film, audio recordings of
migrants are played over footage related to the plight
of the Vietnamese boat people. Thousands of these
migrants drowned in their desperate attempt to
escape persecution after the Vietnam War, an echo
of our current crisis that is largely ignored in the
media. Akomfrah is interested in that amnesia and
how traumatic collective acts and memories are often
forgotten or disregarded by society, meaning we are
forever repeating history.
The heritage of the millions of enslaved Africans shipped
away from their homelands across the Atlantic ocean
is also exposed in this film, with particular reference
to the Zong massacre of 1781, an act of mass murder
of slaves aboard a stranded ship for the purpose of
claiming insurance money against their loss.
There are poignant connections between these
histories and that portrayal of the whaling industry
within the film. Akomfrah draws upon two significant
books directly related to the subject: Herman Melville’s
Moby Dick (1851), with its sense of the impermanence
and precarious nature of life, and Heathcote Williams’
epic poem Whale Nation (1988), a harrowing but
inspiring work which charts the history, intelligence
and majesty of the largest mammal on earth.
“The gunners themselves admit
that if whales could scream the
industry would stop, for nobody
would be able to stand it.”
Dr. Harry D. Lillie who served as a physician on a whaling ship in the 1940s.
Like the slave trade, whaling has been a violent
though hidden undercurrent instrumental to western
industrialisation. Street lighting of the major cities of
Europe and North America was provided by burning
whale oil in the 19th century, while in the 20th century
it was widely used in products ranging from margarine
to makeup. These creatures, which biological research
has shown to have human-like intelligence, were hunted
to near extinction by people who were themselves often
exploited, living for years at a time on dangerous, transoceanic
hunting expeditions, earning little pay and
often falling into debt with the whaling companies.

Although the comparison of whales’ intelligence to
that of humans has been the most influential argument
in support of a ban on whaling, there is a troubling
contrast in the recent labelling of sea-crossing refugees
as ‘cockroaches’ in the media, a reflection of the limits
of society’s compassion for human suffering.
Akomfrah has spoken about the importance of
maintaining the open-endedness of found images,
rather than imposing specific meaning. Positioned
alongside archive film, the newly shot footage in the
film appears symbolic: in these sections, ambiguous
figures dressed in clothes from a range of historical
periods are shown looking out to sea. There is a sense
that they are waiting, perhaps for the consequences of
traumas from the past, or in anticipation of a mythical
flood that promises to wipe out humanity for its sins.
“Be not the slave of your own
past. Plunge into the sublime
seas, dive deep, and swim far, so
shall you come back with selfrespect,
with new power, with an
advanced experience that shall
explain and overlook the old.”
Vertigo Sea has been described by the artist as a
series of lamentations or elegies. It includes some
harrowing content, but is not intended to leave us
in a state of despair. The film presents its story as a
universal, humane concern – something to move us
to compassion, rather than freeze us with horror.
GALLERY 5
Presented here is a short interview with the artist
speaking about the works in the exhibition, reflecting
upon his creative process, thematic sources and
inspirations.
Produced by the Centre for Moving Image Research, University
of the West of England In Association with Arnolfini.
READING ROOM
Visit the Reading Room for further resources, reading
materials and information relating to Vertigo Sea.
We would be really interested to hear your stories and
experiences of the exhibition.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1838

ABOUT THE ARTIST
John Akomfrah was born in 1957 in Accra, Ghana
and lives and works in London. He is an artist and
filmmaker who has achieved a huge amount of
recognition for his investigations into personal and
collective histories, memory, and identity. His approach
to making films is essayistic and discursive rather than
motivated by a desire to present linear narratives. His
works are often constructed from a combination of
original footage and archival material and driven by
an urge to give voice to the experience of the African
diaspora in Europe and the USA.
Akomfrah was one of the founding members of the
influential Black Audio Film Collective, a radical film
group active in the 1980s and early 1990s that was
itself profiled in a major exhibition in 2007 at Arnolfini
and FACT in Liverpool. His work has been exhibited
internationally at Documenta 11, Centre Pompidou,
and The Museum of Modern Art, New York as well
as at the Serpentine Gallery, Tate, Liverpool Biennial
and Southbank Centre. His films have been included
in many international film festivals such as Cannes,
Toronto and Sundance and he has recently been
shortlisted for the Artes Mundi 7 prize, the winner of
which will be announced in January 2017.
WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE
For the duration of Vertigo Sea, Arnolfini will host Cleo
Lake as writer-in-residence. Through regular blog
posts, events, and a final presentation, the writer will
provide an independent perspective and response to
draw out themes and issues relating to the work.
John Akomfrah, Vertigo Sea (film still), 2015.
© Smoking Dogs Films. Courtesy Lisson Gallery.

EVENTS
John Akomfrah in Conversation
Saturday 16 January, 11am, £10 / £8 concs
To coincide with Vertigo Sea, join us for a
unique opportunity to hear John Akomfrah talk
about his work and the exhibition at Arnolfini.
The artist will be in conversation with
academic, editor and writer, Anthony Downey.
This talk is BSL interpreted.
The Myth of Ecology and the Voice of
Shame – Panel Discussion
Thursday 28 January, 6.30pm, £10 / £8 concs
The BBC’s Natural History Unit and leading
independent producers make Bristol the
global centre for natural history filmmaking.
An expert panel explores the issues and
challenges of our engagement with the natural
world and its growing population, as well
as looking at Bristol’s historical links to the
slave trade. Speakers include historian and
filmmaker David Olusoga and senior tutor at
the Royal College of Art, Karen Alexander.
A collaboration with The Centre for Moving Image Research
at the University of the West of England.
Open Reading Group with We Are Here
Thursday 4 February, 6.30pm, free, donations
welcome
Joining us via live-stream from the Netherlands,
We Are Here will present performative
responses and share thoughts about the
relationship between poetry and protest.
Through discussion between the group and
audience, the reading group will explore how
poetry can support protest and give voice to
those who are denied the right to speak.
Reading group materials will be available in advance, please
contact bryony.gillard@arnolfini.org.uk or the Box Office on
0117 9172300.
In the Absence of Ruins There
Will be Innovation
Sunday 21 February, 2pm, £6 / £4 concs
A performance event featuring personal
reflections and provocative politics responding
to absent archives, unseen material and
distant voices through the mediums of poetry,
prose, audio and spoken word.
Testing alternative modes of presentation
and live conversation, participants will play
with recomposing and recreating distinct and
hidden histories to form the beginnings of a
new collective ‘Absent Archive’.
Presented in collaboration with Bristol based artist, Libita Clayton.
F R E E
E V E N T

The Sea Inside – Panel Discussion
Saturday 27 February, 2pm, £10 / £8 concs
Vertigo Sea reflects on themes of
encroachment, territory, movement and
displacement. This panel discussion will
further explore the symbolism of the sea and
its relationship to post-colonial experience
and diaspora. Through discussion and
presentation, speakers will consider the sea as
a site of conflict and a vessel for journeys.
Guest speakers include Melanie Keen, Director,
iniva, writer Philip Hoare and academic Adam
Elliott-Cooper.
Parallel: ICO Art + Cinema Weekend
Friday 4 – Sunday 6 March, weekend pass, day
and individual screening tickets available
This weekend mini-festival looks at
contemporary artists’ moving image
practice via guest-curated film programmes,
new feature-length work, performance,
discussion and more. Screenings include
new commissions by Corin Sworn,
Margaret Salmon, Gabriel Abrantes, Naeem
Mohaiemen and Dora García. Organised by
the Independent Cinema Office in partnership
with LUX.
Labyrinthite, Triangular Trade
Friday 18 March, 8pm, £6 / £4 concs
Artist and musician Seth Cooke leads a live
music and sound event exploring themes of
migration. The work will address Bristol’s
history of slavery and colonialism, involving
and implicating the composer, performers
and audience in the selective exploitation
of resources.
Seth will be joined by musicians from
experimental music collective Bang the Bore.
Chasing the Whale: Kings of the South
Seas with Tim Eriksen & Philip Hoare
Sunday 3 April, 8pm, £10 / £8 concs
Chasing the Whale brings six distinctive and
talented artists together for a journey into the
bawdy world of the early whalers.
Folk / Indie / Jazz trio Kings of the South
Seas are joined by acclaimed New England
traditional singer and musician Tim Eriksen.
On stage they perform original music that
merges folk, jazz, music hall and rock, woven
together by award-winning author Philip
Hoare’s captivating tales and Adam Clitheroe’s
film portraying the powerful imagery of
these voyages.

Open Reading Group led by
Louis Hartnoll
F R E E
FAMILY EVENTS
Thursday 7 April, 6.30pm, free, donations
welcome
Led by writer and editor Louis Hartnoll, this
session will explore themes of aesthetics and
politics in Vertigo Sea alongside a range of
materials including sound, image, poetry and
excerpts of theoretical texts.
Family Film Screening
Saturdays 30 January, 27 February, 26 March,
11am, free, donations welcome
Come and relax in the Dark Studio, as Arnolfini
takes you on an adventure through film to
explore themes from Vertigo Sea.
Limited numbers, book in advance to avoid disappointment.
F R E E
E V E N T
Reading group materials will be available in advance, please
contact bryony.gillard@arnolfini.org.uk or the Box Office on
0117 917 2300.
Screening: Young People’s
Film Project
Sunday 10 April, 2pm – 4pm, free, donations
welcome
Join us to celebrate the creative outcomes of a
collaborative project between young people
from Full Circle Project, St Pauls and artist
and filmmaker Shawn Sobers. The event will
include an introduction to the project and film
screening of work produced by those involved.
F R E E
E V E N T
E V E N T
Family Storytelling
Tuesdays 16 February, 15 March, 10.30am, free,
donations welcome
Storytellers will amaze you, make you giggle
and provide a morning of fun. Meet in the Café
Bar and follow us to the storytelling space
where you’ll listen to stories inspired by the sea.
Limited numbers, book in advance to avoid disappointment.
We Are Family
Saturdays 27 February, 26 March, 1pm – 5pm,
drop-in, free, donations welcome
Get creative with the We Are Family workshop
and join in with exciting, engaging and fun
activities for young artists andtheir families
to do together. Drop in andsee what fantastic
creations you can make!
F R E E
F R E E
E V E N T
E V E N T
Most suitable for ages 5+ but all ages are welcome to have a go.

Family Space
Tuesday 22 March – Saturday 2 April,
Tuesday – Sunday, 11am – 6pm, free, donations
welcome
During the Easter holidays, you are invited to
explore the themes of John Akomfrah’s work
with us. Drop into the Light Studio and take
an imaginary trip across the sea, encounter
wonderful whales and listen to tales of
far-off places.
John Akomfrah, Tropikos (film stills), 2016.
© Smoking Dogs Films. Courtesy Lisson Gallery.
F R E E
E V E N T
FURTHER READING
John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667), Penguin Classics;
revised edition (2003)
Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851), Penguin Classics;
revised edition (2012)
Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (1961), Grove
Press; reprint edition (2005)
Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North (1966),
Lynne Rienner Publishers; reprint edition (1980)
Heathcote Williams, Whale Nation,
Jonathan Cape (1988)
Stuart Hall, Representation: Cultural Representations
and Signifying Practices, Sage Publications & Open
University (1997)
Kodwo Eshun, The Ghosts of Songs: The Art of the
Black Audio Film Collective, Chicago University Press
(2007)
Kobena Mercer, Exiles, Diasporas & Strangers, Institute
of International Visual Arts (iniva) & MIT Press (2007)
Camille T. Dungy (Ed), Black Nature: Four Centuries of
African American Nature Poetry, University of Georgia
Press (2009)
Philip Hoare, Leviathan, Fourth Estate (2009)
These publications and many other articles and resources
relating to the exhibition can be found in the Reading Room.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
GALLERY PLAN
Vertigo Sea is presented in Bristol with support
awarded to Arnolfini through Arts Council England’s
Strategic Touring Fund. During 2016 and 2017 the
work will tour to partner venues in the UK including
Turner Contemporary in Margate and The
Whitworth, Manchester and other venues to be
announced.
Level 2
Light Studio
Gallery 5
Reading
Room
Interview with
John Akomfrah
Vertigo Sea is a Smoking Dogs Films production
supported by Bildmuseet, Umeå and BAC-Baltic Art
Center, Sweden; the Swedish Arts Council; Sharjah
Art Foundation; BBC Natural History Unit, Bristol;
British Film Institute; Arts Council of England and
Tyneside Cinema Gallery.
Level 1
Gallery 2
Gallery 3
Vertigo Sea, 2015
Tropikos is a 70th Anniversary Commission for the
Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London,
with the River Tamar Project and Smoking Dogs Films.
Gallery 4
We would like to thank Lisson Gallery for their support
of the exhibition and all partners working with us on
the public programme.
Ground Floor
Bookshop
Tropikos, 2016
Café Bar
Gallery 1

Photography Policy
Please refrain from photographing or
filming any work in the exhibition.
Please share your thoughts about the
exhibition via Facebook or Twitter:
#JohnAkomfrah #VertigoSea
@ArnolfiniArts
Bookshop
In the bookshop you can find a selection
of publications for sale that relate to the
current exhibition.
Access
We aim to make all visitors welcome.
There are parking spaces for people with
disabilities outside our main entrance,
access via Farr’s Lane. Our galleries are
wheelchair accessible.
Large print versions of
this guide are available
at the Box Office
Exhibition spaces open: Tuesday to
Sunday and Bank Holidays, 11am – 6pm,
Wednesdays 11am – 8pm. Admission to
the exhibition spaces is free.
Arnolfini
16 Narrow Quay, Bristol BS1 4QA
arnolfini.org.uk / @ArnolfiniArts
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John Akomfrah, Vertigo Sea (film still), 2015.
© Smoking Dogs Films. Courtesy Lisson Gallery.