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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Wu Tsang: Of Whales

Installation view of Wu Tsang’s Of Whales, 2023.

Mar 1 – June 11, 2023
P.º del Prado, 8, 28014 Madrid, Spain

The American installation artist Wu Tsang has followed up her 2022 film—Moby Dick, or, The Whale—with an even deeper dive into Melville’s creation, one that comes to us through the whale’s perspective. “Of Whales” is a video and sound installation that draws viewers into an oceanscape cosmos. Tsang, who is interested in “in-betweenness,” uses the ocean as a symbol for the vast unknown. As Ishmael says of the white whale, in Chapter 42 of Herman Melville’s 1851 masterpiece, “By its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation …” —Elena Clavarino

Photo: Roberto Ruiz