Duke Riley: O'er the Wide and Plastic Sea
The exhibition O’er the Wide and Plastic Sea surveys two decades of work by New England-born, Brooklyn-based artist Duke Riley who is known for innovative and intricate installations, performances, videos, sculptures, and drawings that call attention to the ways in which institutional power collides with the natural world. Riley’s works, which evoke the aesthetics and imagery of early Americana and maritime craft, are rooted in folkloric narrative while addressing contemporary issues. Often rebellious and raucous in tone, his pieces weave fact and fable, humor and tragedy, to remind us that truth can be stranger than fiction. Taking on themes such as corporate greed, environmental crises, and the underpinnings of American military prowess, Riley consistently portrays the ways in which industry attempts to overtake nature and the ingenious ways that nature fights to overcome.
This exhibition highlights several bodies of work from the past 20 years shown together for the first time. Featured in the exhibition are Riley’s iconic scrimshaw sculptures that replace traditional whale bone with single use plastic, such as detergent bottles, and tableaux of playful fishing lures made of found ocean detritus. Many objects in this exhibition are made from trash collected from the Virginia Beach area. Created in response to Riley‘s time researching the region, a new sculptural series that plays on Victorian-era beachside tourist souvenirs makes its museum debut. Riley has etched naval destroyers onto plastic “ruby glass” vessels, making a connection between America’s heightened military might and the industrial era, which together gave rise to the economy of leisure.
Inspired by maritime and nautical history, Riley’s settings are often located on the littoral zone or the nearshore—a fittingly fraught landscape in which to harken the message of complex environmental and political narratives. Riley’s keen interest in naval history is forefronted in works that depict historic ships, such as the sunken battleship USS Monitor, in recycled plastic tile mosaics. The show includes Riley’s replica of an original submarine, replete with regalia and documentation of its maiden voyage in the East River. The exhibition also features two meticulously crafted sailors’ valentines, which served in the last century as keepsakes conveying romantic longing during a voyage. Here, Riley has assembled these oversized mosaics from shells and found plastic trash from waterways, including syringes, buoy parts, tampon applicators, and disposable lighters. Negating sentimentality, they serve as heartbreaking signposts for our ocean pollution crisis.
Together Riley’s works convey highly original—sometimes satirical but always clever-–messages reflective of the American spirit. For years, his artistic practice has been one of championing the underdog, heroically evoking the scrappy voyager who, through gumption and ingenuity, intends to reach a beacon in uncharted waters. In this way, Riley channels the possibility that our shared history of resistance might also be what generates unorthodox solutions to the challenges that plague our time.
Organized by the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Curated by Melissa Messina, an independent curator and former graduate schoolmate of Riley’s.
Generously sponsored by the Rutter Family Art Foundation.
