By: Nader Taheri

The Peabody Essex Museum’s Contemporary Art department and Maritime Art & History department commissioned the Gallery to construct a 1/16 = 1' scale diorama of a derelict chemical tanker undergoing dismantling at Chittagong, Bangladesh. Michael selected our in-house model specialist Nader Taheri to carry out the project which was to accompany Peter Hutton's film, ‘At Sea’, as part of their contemporary art initiative entitled 'FreePort' No.004 exhibition.

Hutton’s was a story about a modern vessel’s life, from its purpose-built construction, its service at sea, and then its final demise. It was felt by the curators and Hutton, that the later aspect of the film needed a more tangible three-dimensional object to convey this tragic ending. Hutton explained, “That beach in Chittagong is an interesting art park, an apocalyptic dystopian kind of tableau”, and only by circumstance did the film help expose the gravity of environmental conditions in which the impoverished people of Chittagong dealt with during their primitive and horrendous ship breaking operation.

Model type: Custom Model, Diorama, Merchant
Scale: 1/8" = 1'
Class: A/Special
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