Art Show For Divers Only - Florida Keys
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Take in a photo show by one of the world’s top photographers,
Take in a photo show by one of the world’s top photographers,
Don’t forget a 5-minute stop after
exiting the exhibition
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| Divers install a photo illustration on the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, a 523-foot-long former U.S.A.F. missile-tracking ship that was scuttled in 2009 as an artificial reef seven miles south of Key West in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary |
By Stephen Weir
It is an
international happening -- an art show that will have you holding your breath
-- but only for so long. People in-the-know who have a C-card and the
willingness to swim with big fishes, have been making underwater pilgrimages this
spring in the Florida Keys to see the hidden work of Austrian artist Andreas
Franke.
Considered one of
the 200 best photographers in the world, Franke has once again taken his art
underwater in the new show: The Sinking
World – The Vandenberg Project #2. This is the fourth time that he has put together a composite
photography exhibition that can only be seen wreck diving!
The photographer’s
newest underwater art exhibition has been installed on the wreck of the
523-foot Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, lying in the Florida Keys National Marine
Sanctuary about 10kms south of Key West. The exhibition went up on the 1st of
April and runs till the end of July 2016.
In early April, divers
from the Artificial Reefs International Preservation Trust installed a dozen
photo illustrations on the Vandenberg's weathered deck, more than 30m below the
surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The pictures will stay affixed to the coral
covered Vandenberg until the end of July.
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| A diver examines an Andreas Franke photograph illustration. Picture taken in April on the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, a 523-foot-long former U.S. Air Force missile-tracking ship |
Andreas Franke’s
photographs are encased in plexiglass and mounted in stainless steel frames
sealed with silicone. They are a continuation of the artist's "Sinking
World" series, which he debuted on the Vandenberg in 2011 shortly after
the world’s second largest artificial reef was sunk. In 2013 a second exhibition was installed on
the wreck of the Mohawk, an artificial reef off Fort Myers, Florida in the Lee
County wreck preserve.
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| After 3-months on hull of Mohawk! Photo by Stephen Weir |
In the 2016
exhibition Franke has manipulated photographs that depict a flamboyant era of
European style and cultural history against the backdrop of a sunken coral
encrusted warship. Among visuals are women gossiping over a picnic and other
ladies engaged in a leisurely stroll twirling umbrellas across the deck of the
sunken WW2 troop carrier (and later missile tracking ship) Vandenberg.
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| Franke image exhibited on the Mohawk in 2013 |
Franke toured and
photographed the Vandenberg prior to the ship being sunk to create an
artificial reef. He also has photographs
of the Vandenberg after she went down.
Working with these
images in his Vienna studio he subsequently photographed costumed models to
photograph dream-like sequences, which were mashed with the original
photographs of the ship. He has created ghostly apparitions and whimsical views
of the sunken warship.
Off Key West the Vandenberg
has become an underwater version of the Flying Dutchman -- a ship, a crew and
somehow some pretty female passengers doomed to sail the seas underwater
eternally.
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"During their
time at sea, the photos will evolve with accumulation of marine life,"
explains the artist, "which will give them a seaworthy patina and life of
their own and ennobles the art work to unique pieces." At the end of this
underwater exhibition, "The Sinking World" images will be brought to
the surface for display for non-divers to see.
At the wreck site
you need scuba gear to make it down to the deck of the ship to see the works.
The ship sits at almost 50 metres however Franke’s photographs are hung on the
upper decks – 30 metres - well within sport diving limits. Given
the time constraints involved in diving at this depth (about 25-minutes) and
since the composite photographs are placed throughout the ship, there is quite
a bit of swim time required to take in the whole show.
Seeing this
exhibition is a much different experience than contemplating a masterpiece in an
air filled museum. The works have only been up for a month but already sea
creatures and plant life have attached themselves to the pictures - in time
divers will have to sweep off the plant life to see the images.
"That divers
clean the art work is not too bad at all," Franke told Diver Magazine
during his show previous to the Vandenberg. "As long as they only clean
the main part of the images it doesn't bother me a lot. On the contrary, it is
finally a part of the whole concept. My work is done as soon as the artwork is
fixed on the wreck. Then the ocean and the diver decide how the final image
will turn out."
"I am
completely fascinated by that mystical underwater world, the very peculiar
emptiness and a tragic stillness but also by the shipwrecks. The depth has no
big influence at all as long as divers can reach them."
Sidebar Link
There are at least
a dozen dive boat operators who visa the wreck of the Vandenberg on a regular
basis.
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