It wasn’t until 1985 that the first posthumous solo exhibition of his work was held. We talked about it, and he assured me repeatedly these were not his intentions.Īside from the Avalanche interview, Ader’s death received little attention at the time. I’m absolutely convinced that was nowhere in his consciousness. Willoughby Sharp: There was no sense of him wanting that kind of thing or thinking …… They had rumors going for months that he was alive and well. Liza Béar: Starting another life somewhere else? Mary Sue Ader : I heard a lot of his students were so incapable of living with the reality of it that they were fantasizing all kinds of situations … The final exchange, which is also the most quoted part of the interview, encapsulates the reactions to his disappearance: In May 1976, a little over a month after the discovery of the Ocean Wave, the editors of Avalanche art magazine, Liza Béar and Willoughby Sharp, published a transcript of a phone interview with Andersen in the summer issue of 1976, in which they repeatedly probed the nature of Ader’s intentions. He was the artist who had died for his art. The resulting narrative was impossible to resist. What happened to him? Was he really dead or had he staged his disappearance? Did he commit suicide, and if so, had that been his intention the entire time? These questions became more pointed due to the artistic nature of Ader’s journey. A number of questions arose in the wake of the artist’s disappearance. Ader took a camera and several notebooks with him - none of which were recovered. The artist conceived of his journey, which was estimated to take anywhere between two to three months, as part of an artwork titled “In Search of the Miraculous.” Had he succeeded, the Ocean Wave would have been the smallest boat to cross the Atlantic. From there, he was to travel to the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands for an exhibition of his work. Ader’s destination was Falmouth, England. His departure was documented by his wife, Mary Sue Ader Andersen, who photographed Ader on board the Ocean Wave as it was towed out from the harbor. Ader’s body was never recovered.Īder had set sail from Chatham, Massachusetts, 10 months earlier on July 9, 1975. Based on the barnacles attached to the boat’s hull, the captain of the Pondal, Don Manual Castineira Alfeirán, concluded that the Ocean Wave was adrift for around six months. The boat was named Ocean Wave, and it belonged to the conceptual artist Bas Jan Ader. Amongst spoiled cans of food and nautical equipment, they found four forms of identification: a passport, driver’s license, health insurance card, and a University of California, Irvine ID. After hoisting the boat onto the trawler’s deck, the Pondal’s crew conducted a search of its cabin. The vessel was floating vertically, its bow completely submerged. As the crew approached, they saw that it was a small sailing boat. On April 18, 1976, approximately 150 nautical miles from the southwest coast of Ireland, the crew of a Spanish fishing trawler, the Eduardo Pondal, spotted an object floating in the water. Bas Jan Ader, center spread for Bulletin 89, published by Art & Project, Amsterdam (August 1975), photo lithography on paper, 11 5/8 x 16 9/16 inches (unfolded) (© Estate of Bas Jan Ader / Mary Sue Ader Andersen, 2016 / The Artist Rights Society (ARS) New York, courtesy Meliksetian | Briggs, Los Angeles)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |