Chris Boyne : A. Conveyor

November 4th — December 11th, 2021

Opening Wednesday November 4th, 2021 — 5:30 pm (by reservation, 15 people max/hr)

Project Description

In 2019, Chris Boyne gave himself the task of finding a single object from the ship Atlantic Conveyor, and traveled to Alang, India, in search of that piece.

The Atlantic Conveyor crossed the North Atlantic serving ports including Halifax, Baltimore, Rotterdam and Liverpool for 30 years before being decommissioned and sent to the infamous ship-breaking beaches of Alang in 2017.  The breaking process for ships like the Atlantic Conveyor is meant to be absolute.  Boyne endeavored to reverse this reality by following a specific ship through the process.  This reversal perpetuates the existence of the Atlantic Conveyor drawing attention to the humanitarian and environmental reality of shipbreaking in South Asia. 

Through his work, Chris Boyne pushes the idea that task can be the basis for conceptual visual work. As a project, A. Conveyor asks practical and conceptual questions:  is it possible to track a ship through the breaking process?  When did Atlantic Conveyor cease to be a ship/cease to exist?  Can this cessation be slowed or reversed by preserving a single object as an art-object?  To what extend can a single object embody the artist’s task, the breaking process and the ship itself?

The artist would like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts for its support.

Photo Credit: Johan Nordendorph, bar built by the crew aboard the Atlantic Concert (sister ship to Atlantic Conveyor) on its final voyage to Alang.