The Sea is History

From March 7 thru August 18, 2019 the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo presents " The Sea is History", an exhibition curated by Selene Wendt featuring the work of John Akomfrah, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Andrea Chung, Christopher Cozier, Manthia Diawara, Isaac Julien, Naiza Khan, Hew Locke, Nyugen E. Smith, and Cosmo Whyte. The exhibition title is inspired by the seminal poem by the St. Lucian Nobel-laureate poet Derek Walcott. The reference serves to emphasize the poetic undercurrent of the exhibition, while also highlighting the relevance of great Caribbean thinkers such as Derek Walcott, Stuart Hall and Édouard Glissant within a wider geographical and theoretical context. The exhibition features work by contemporary artists who address issues of migration and displacement from both a historical and contemporary perspective. The exhibition brings the individual perspectives and narratives of each participating artist to the fore, while also questioning how these various histories are interconnected and entangled. Within this context, migration and displacement are recurring themes that relate to a timeframe that begins with the African slave trade and continues until today. If the exhibition were visualized on a map, the works could be understood in relation to an expansive sea, the ebb and flow of which is never-ending, and cyclical, where the currents move back and forth between countries and continents, through time and history. The routes on the map would extend from West Africa to the Caribbean, from the Caribbean to the UK and the United States, and also between Asia and the Caribbean. As such, the intertwined and overlapping histories and stories are connected to an ongoing discourse that is fluid, open-ended, and unresolved. Stuart Hall's and Édouard Glissant's contribution to cultural theory, and Derek Walcott's poems provide valuable insight into the works of the participating artists. Emphasizing the importance of Caribbean voices and poetry within an international context, The Sea is History is accompanied by a catalogue published by Skira. The catalogue includes an extensive curatorial essay by Selene Wendt in addition to poems and essays by Christian Campbell, Manthia Diawara, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Kei Miller, Annie Paul, Ishion Hutchinson, Nyugen E. Smith, and Derek Walcott. For more information visit: https://www.khm.uio.no/english/visit-us/historical-museum/temporary-exhibitions/the-sea-is-history.html