Upon a Painted Ocean

This work was created for an exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery in 2015, to accompany the gallery’s collection of 17th-century Dutch seascapes. I created an animation of three of those paintings editing out most of the human action in the originals – embodied by large ships that represented Dutch military and economic power. In this piece, the sea is no longer a backdrop but an elemental, impassive presence. The full animation is presented as a seamless loop to invite uninterrupted contemplation.