Bronze Carnivores: How Confederate Monuments Disfigure the Present (duplicate)

Or, the Whale Vol. 1–3 by Bethany Collins 

Selected by Leilani Lynch

Collins’ practice reexamines literary and sonic works from American history to draw out meanings that resonate in the present. In this series, she revisits Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1851) through a painstaking transcription using corrosive iron gall ink on onion skin paper. Often described as a prophetic American text, Melville’s novel warns of the dangers of following an unrepentant leader on myopic pursuits. Collins’ labor-intensive process of transcription imbues the work with both the threat of decay and the possibility of survival, reflecting a present defined by precarity, resistance, and the choice not to go down with a sinking ship.
Lynch is curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Denver.