Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On), 1840, JMW Turner
2016 Performance stills
Origami boats, bucket, water, plastic container, paint, paper
Performed at Writtle University College.
Exploring the disorientation of Turner’s painting through both it’s composition and the true story on which it is based. In 1781 the captain of the slave ship Zong threw sick and dying slaves overboard so that he could collect insurance money available only for slaves ‘lost at sea’. The captain had ‘Blood on his hands’
© Paula Musgrove
“Aloft all hands, strike the top masts and belay;
Yon angry setting sun and fierce-edge clouds
Declare the typhoon’s coming.
Before it sweeps your decks, throw overboard
The dead and dying-ne’er heed their chains
Hope, Hope, fallacious Hope!
Where is thy market now?”
(Taken from unpublished poem “Fallacies of Hope” (1812) by JMW Turner)
PAULA MUSGROVE 