• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • NEWS+OPINIONS
    • NEWS TO US
    • COLUMNS
      • APPARENT HORIZON
      • DEAR READER
      • Close
    • LONGFORM FEATURES
    • OPINIONS
    • EDITORIAL
    • Close
  • ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
    • FILM
    • MUSIC
    • COMEDY
    • PERFORMING ARTS
    • VISUAL ARTS
    • Close
  • DINING+DRINKING
    • EATS
    • SIPS
    • BOSTON BETTER BEER BUREAU
    • Close
  • LIFESTYLE
    • CANNABIS
      • TALKING JOINTS MEMO
      • Close
    • WELLNESS
    • GTFO
    • Close
  • STUFF TO DO
  • TICKETS
  • ABOUT US
    • ABOUT
    • MASTHEAD
    • ADVERTISE
    • Close
  • BECOME A MEMBER

Dig Bos

The Dig - Boston's Only Newspaper

GALLERY REVIEW: Steve McQueen: Ashes—Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston

Written by CHRISTOPHER SNOW HOPKINS Posted October 28, 2017 Filed Under: A+E, Visual Arts

Steve McQueen, Ashes, 2002–15, istallation view, the 56th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia, All the World's Futures, Venice, 2015, courtesy of the artist, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris, and Thomas Dane Gallery, London, © 2016 Steve McQueen, photo by Francesca Buccaro
Steve McQueen, Ashes, 2002–15, istallation view, the 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, All the World’s Futures, Venice, 2015, courtesy of the artist, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris, and Thomas Dane Gallery, London, © 2016 Steve McQueen, photo by Francesca Buccaro

 

In 2002, Steve McQueen met a charismatic fisherman named Ashes in Grenada. When the British artist returned to the island eight years later, Ashes was dead, gunned down by a drug kingpin after the fisherman discovered a cache of narcotics on the beach.

 


Ashes’ tale is the subject of a two-sided video installation at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. On one side, the protagonist sits on a fishing boat as it rocks up and down on azurite waves. Like a marine sprite, Ashes prances on the prow of the vessel, impervious to salty sea spray. On the other side, two concrete-slingers build a whitewashed sepulcher for the dead protagonist while a narrator recounts Ashes’ bloody end.

 


This is a meditation on the destruction of the body and the construction of memory. Ashes is a comment on mortality—“ashes to ashes, dust to dust”—and the vagaries of time. Here, youth and annihilation, life and death, are presented at the same moment.

 

Show runs until 2.25.18. Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston. icaboston.org

 

This short review is being simultaneously published at Delicious Line, deliciousline.org. Christopher Snow Hopkins is an independent writer and critic living in Boston.

Author profile
CHRISTOPHER SNOW HOPKINS
Related posts
  • CHRISTOPHER SNOW HOPKINS
    https://digboston.com/author/christopher-snow-hopkins/
    GALLERY REVIEW: The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvard’s Teaching Cabinet, 1766-1820—Harvard Art Museums

Filed Under: A+E, Visual Arts Tagged With: Ashes, Boston, gallery, ICA, installation, review, Steve McQueen, visual art

WHAT’S NEW

Trump-Loving Mass Republican Party Freaks Out Over Mar-a-Lago Raid

Trump-Loving Mass Republican Party Freaks Out Over Mar-a-Lago Raid

Governor’s Council Weighs Controversial Parole Board Renomination

Governor’s Council Weighs Controversial Parole Board Renomination

Bay State Gas Providers Pay Up

Bay State Gas Providers Pay Up

State Wire: Mass Needs to Reform Youth Restitution Policies

State Wire: Mass Needs to Reform Youth Restitution Policies

“Pie” by Eric Ferdinand is licensed under CC-BY 2.0

Share and Share Alike: Major Funders Need to Give Equally to All Nonprofit News Outlets

The T Will Stay Broken Because Poor and Working People Are Seen As Expendable 

The T Will Stay Broken Because Poor and Working People Are Seen As Expendable 

Primary Sidebar

Advertisement

FEATURED EVENT

Advertisement

Most Popular

  • The T Will Stay Broken Because Poor and Working People Are Seen As Expendable 
  • Inside the Bay State’s Legendary (and Only) One-Man Brewery
  • Boston Gets Police Commissioner Who Bad Cops Likely Loathe. Let’s See How This Goes
  • Meet the Phantom Behind Greater Boston’s Awesome Food Feed Everybody Gotta Eat
  • Worcester’s Wasteful, Never-Ending War on Police Transparency

Footer

Social Buttons

DigBoston facebook DigBoston Twitter DigBoston Instagram

Masthead

About

Advertise

Customer Service

About Us

DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an e-mail blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: [email protected] To reach Editorial (and for inquiries about internship opportunities): [email protected]