The Deluge - Noah's Ark
Peng Hung-Chih
彭弘智
Production date
2014
Object Detail
Media
3D printed ABS plastic
Measurements
5366 pieces, installed 180 x 800 x 180 cm
Notes
Peng Hung-Chih reflects on the role of humankind in catastrophic climatic change and its attendant natural disasters. If Noah were required to build an ark for the Anthropocene, what would he make? The Deluge —Noah’s Ark (2014) represents the failure of human beings to confront the environmental calamities they have created. Thirty desktop 3D printers produced the thousands of component parts that make up an eight-metre long, 3D-printed shipwrecked ocean liner – Peng’s first work using this technology. Recalling past shipwrecks from the Titanic to the Costa Concordia, and the tragic 2014 sinking of the Korean ferry MV Sewol, its ghostly whiteness also forces viewers to consider the enormity of rising seas, melting ice floes and the apocalyptic force of a tsunami. Peng Hung-Chih wanted to create a metaphor for the tensions between the benefits of technology and the forces of the natural world. Like a great, twisted, beached whale, created from the very plastics that represent looming environmental disaster, the ship lies stranded on the gallery floor. Peng Hung-Chih says, ‘If Noah’s Ark, a symbol of mankind’s salvation, becomes just a shipwreck, human and nonhuman alike would be placed in an equal position.’
Accession number
2016.200