The Sunken Boat: A glimpse into past histories

Join us this summer to discover The Sunken Boat: A glimpse into past histories, a powerful exhibition by Anna Boghiguian, which will explore global maritime histories and today’s environmental and geopolitical crises, taking inspiration from the landscape and coastal history of Margate.

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.

For The Sunken Boat, the artist has developed a site-specific installation responding to Turner Contemporary’s coastal setting. Drawing on stories of a sunken boat that carried enslaved people from West Africa to Liverpool, the installation explores 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.

Supporters

The exhibition is made possible with thanks to the generous support of the Henry Moore Foundation, Silvia Fiorucci with La Società delle Api and Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation. Turner Contemporary receives public funding from Arts Council England and Kent County Council.

About the artist

Anna Boghiguian is an artist whose work has been exhibited internationally, including the Istanbul Biennial (2009), Sharjah Biennial (2011), and dOCUMENTA(13) (2012). She received the Golden Lion at the 2015 Venice Biennale and is known for her installations that explore the intersections of history, politics, and the environment. Born in Cairo to an Armenian family, Boghiguian studied political science and economics at the American University in Cairo before moving to Canada in the 1970s to study art and music. In 2024, she was awarded the prestigious Wolfgang Hahn Prize in Germany.

The Sunken Boat: A glimpse into past histories

Saturday 14 June–Sunday 26 October 2025

Opening Day

Saturday 14 June 2025, 1–7pm

Opening Hours

Tuesdays to Sundays, 10am–5pm, plus bank holidays