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Peabody Essex Museum (PEM)
161 Essex Street Salem, MA 01970 978.745.9500 | 866.745.1876 Map www.pem.org Exhibitions: Draw Me Ishmael: The Book Arts of Moby Dick |
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Agustina Woodgate: Ballroom 08/3/24-02/23/25 Agustina Woodgate’s work asks us to consider a world without maps and borders. Encounter Ballroom, an installation that invites you to interact with and navigate your way through a field of geographic globes on the gallery floor. Each globe has been meticulously sanded to remove nations and human-made boundaries. Is the artist’s erasure a utopian gesture in recognition of our common humanity? Or is it a dystopian premonition of the world being destroyed by human greed and human-made catastrophes? For its premiere installation at PEM, Ballroom is installed with a group of historical navigation instruments drawn from the museum’s collection, many of which have long been outmoded by digital navigation tools. Accompanying the installation is a video in which the artist uses artificial intelligence to reconstruct images from an erased atlas. Born in Buenos Aires in 1981, Woodgate lives and works between Amsterdam and Buenos Aires. She is best known for her public installations that address social issues by investigating the relationships between people and institutions. Her projects have been commissioned by the Bienal de las Américas, Denver; ArtPort, Tel Aviv; PlayPublik, Poland; DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Washington, DC; The Bass Museum of Art, Miami; Kulturpark, Berlin; and Mass MoCA, Massachusetts, among others. The artist previously exhibited a series of rugs made from deconstructed plush toys in PEM’s 2018 PlayTime exhibition. Follow along on social media using #AgustinaWoodgate Agustina Woodgate: Ballroom is organized by the Peabody Essex Museum. This exhibition is made possible by Carolyn and Peter S. Lynch and The Lynch Foundation. We thank Jennifer and Andrew Borggaard, James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes, Chip and Susan Robie, and Timothy T. Hilton as supporters of the Exhibition Innovation Fund. We also recognize the generosity of the East India Marine Associates of the Peabody Essex Museum. |
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Draw Me Ishmael: The Book Arts of Moby Dick Through January 4, 2026 Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is the most persistently pictured of all American novels. The novel and its timeless themes continue to inspire artists, designers and creatives of all types. Its first sentence: “Call me Ishmael.” is one of the most iconic and best-known opening lines in all of literature. Draw Me Ishmael: The Book Arts of Moby Dick is the first exhibition focused on the book arts of the hundreds of editions published since 1851: the illustrations, binding designs, typography and even the physical structures. Drawn almost entirely from the Phillips Library collection, this intimate gallery space explores decades of creative approaches to interpreting the novel visually in book form. It will shed some light on Melville’s original inspiration and include a contemporary update through recent artists’ books, graphic novels, a translation into emoji and pop-up books. Think untraditionally and independently about Moby Dick, appreciate the variety of approaches to visualizing the novel and explore copies of more than 50 books on display. Follow along on social media using #DrawMeIshmael Draw Me Ishmael: The Book Arts of Moby Dick is organized by the Peabody Essex Museum. This exhibition is made possible by Carolyn and Peter S. Lynch and The Lynch Foundation. We thank Jennifer and Andrew Borggaard, James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes, Chip and Susan Robie, and Timothy T. Hilton as supporters of the Exhibition Innovation Fund. We also recognize the generosity of the East India Marine Associates of the Peabody Essex Museum. |
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Susan Philipsz: If I With You Would Go Through June 29, 2025 Philipsz uses sound, song, and site to heighten awareness of space, emotion, and memory. In the sound work If I With You Would Go, artist Susan Philipsz sings eight different versions of the traditional ballad “James Harris,” also called “The Daemon Lover.” It tells the story of a married woman seduced by a long-lost lover, who is secretly the devil in human form. With promises of adventures and treasure, he lures her onto his ship, only to scuttle it with his cloven hoof, drowning and sending her to hell. Philipsz uses sound, song, and site to heighten awareness of space, emotion, and memory. Her choice of song, that of a young woman lured away to sea, might be understood as a mythical and cautionary echo of the mercantile and maritime history embodied in PEM's historic East India Marine Hall. Shaping sound like a sculptor, the artist used recordings of her unaccompanied singing voice to define and articulate the space. Share your impressions with us on social media using #PEMpresenttense and #Susan Philipsz. Support provided by donors to the 2011 FreePort Fund and by the East India Marine Associates of the Peabody Essex Museum. Susan Philipsz, If I With You Would Go, 2011. Eight-channel sound installation, 19:17 minutes Commissioned by PEM, 2011. Museum purchase made possible by the John Robinson Fund, 2012.29.1. |
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