Michael John Whelan
Video Installation
Film
Photography
Objects
Paper & Sound
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Echoes of evaporation
and submergence

1991
And they did live by watchfires
Nocturne
Untitled
Darkness had no need
These last breaths
The time of cruel wonders
was not yet over

In the black dark for good
Carapace
That we were to wait
Like force and matter
Lupus
20 Vertices, 30 Edges
and 160 Diagonals

Dune
Transit of Venus
Over the echoing gateway
Stars/Star
Shadowplay
Archway (diptych)
Untitled (25º15'34.6"N 54º12'56.8"E)
2020
50 x 40cm, 30 x 22.5cm gelatin silver prints
140 x 200cm burial cloth, folded
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A dive boat travelled 110km into the Persian Gulf from Dubai. On board with a diver and Whelan was a found piece of pillar coral, wrapped in burial cloth. The boat travelled to a site where oil surveys and geological extractions took place for over half a century. They waited for the sun to set. Once it was completely dark, the diver dropped into the depths with only a torch and the coral. She descended over twenty meters. Once she reached the traumatised seabed, she gently placed the coral down in an empty area. A photo was taken of this votive offering as she ascended, using her torch as illumination. This photo is exhibited alongside the cloth that the coral was wrapped in during its journey.