‘Vertigo Sea’ by John Akomfrah featured in the Aichi Triennale, Nagoya, Japan

5 September 2025

John Akomfrah’s three-channel film installation Vertigo Sea (2015) will feature in ‘A Time Between Ashes and Roses’, the 2025 edition of Aichi Triennale, led by Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, Artistic Director, on view from September 13, 2025 to November 30, 2025.

Vertigo Sea, first seen at the 56th Venice Biennale as part of Okwui Enwezor's ‘All the World's Futures’ exhibition, explores what Ralph Waldo Emerson calls ‘the sublime seas’. Fusing archival material, readings from classical sources and newly shot footage, Vertigo Sea highlights the cruelty of the whaling industry and juxtaposes it with scenes of many generations of migrants making epic crossings of the ocean for a better life.

Find out more via the Aichi Triennale.

Image: John Akomfrah, Vertigo Sea, 2015, Three channel HD colour video installation, 7.1 sound, 48 minutes 30 seconds, © Smoking Dogs Films, Courtesy Smoking Dogs Films and Lisson Gallery.