The Sunken Boat:
A glimpse into
past histories

Boghiguian, an Egyptian-Canadian artist of Armenian heritage, creates large-scale installations that combine personal narrative, historical research, and political commentary. Her distinctive visual language—combining painting, drawing, collage, paper-mâché, glass, bronze, and fabric—confronts viewers with questions about colonialism, trade, migration, and ecological devastation. Her figurative work, including large-scale tableaux, is deeply connected to history and storytelling, addressing themes such as the impact of the Industrial Revolution and the climate crisis.

The Sunken Boat, includes a new installation exploring the centrality of the sea in shaping histories of labour, trade, ecological collapse, and political conflict. It combines sculpture, painting, cut-out figures and sound, inviting reflection on rising sea levels and geopolitical tensions around undersea communication cables. 

Key earlier works include The Square, the Line and the Ruler: Ambiguous Philosophers / Ambiguous Politicians (2019), a life-size chess set that critiques power structures, and The Salt Traders (2015), an environmental installation that examines the salt trade’s connections to colonialism and climate change through painted sails and a Roman trading ship sculpture emerging from melting ice.

The Sunken Boat promises a rich and multifaceted experience that weaves historical narratives, personal observations, and urgent contemporary concerns, inviting viewers to reconsider the sea’s pivotal role in shaping our collective past and unfolding future.

This exhibition is presented in collaboration with ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum and is curated by Sarah Martin with production by Katherine Lloyd and Joe Drakeford.

Recommended reading

• C.P. Cavafy: Selected Poems
• Farewell to Alexandria (Illustrated by Anna Boghiguian)
• Anna Boghiguian: A Short Long History