Through the Skies for You

Through the Skies for You, two channel video, 2014

Through the Skies for You, two channel video, reconfigured sailboat remnants

Through the Skies for You was inspired by the disappearance of 17th Century French Explorer Robert de La Salle’s expeditionary ship Le Griffon, and the exhaustive and ongoing quest to find this lost vessel in the depths of Lake Michigan.

One channel depicts the ship’s recovery from a sunken state ascending slowly from beneath the surface of the water and disappearing into the sky. At the same time the second video presents the ship in free fall out of the sky and onto dry land where it fractures on impact. As the tension between the channels continues in an infinite loop, the ship becomes caught in a perpetual state of oscillation between rejuvenation and ruin. The splintered remains of the vessel are carefully reassembled within the gallery, reminiscent of archeological artifacts or scuba diving on a shipwreck, offering new perspectives on artifice, artifact, and history.

All works Kevin Cooley and Phillip Andrew Lewis