John Akomfrah's Vertigo Sea and career retrospective explore oceanic ontologies

John Akomfrah's installation, Vertigo Sea (2015), made its UK debut at Arnolfini in Bristol, where it was showcased through April, coinciding with a retrospective at Lisson Gallery in London. This 48-minute piece delves into narratives ranging from whaling to migrations across the Mediterranean, framed within 'oceanic ontologies.' Akomfrah, who co-founded the Black Audio Film Collective in 1982, merges social realism with innovative forms in earlier works like Handsworth Songs (1986). Influenced by Moby-Dick (1851) and thinkers such as Nietzsche, Williams, and Heidegger, Vertigo Sea features a soundtrack of whale calls and news clips, contemplating themes of mortality, diaspora, and posthumanism. Akomfrah's own near-drowning in Accra shapes his deep respect for the ocean. The work was also part of Okwui Enwezor's All the World's Futures at the 2015 Venice Biennale.