KANVAS MUTINY
A New Life for the Old Sails of Arka Kinari
Visual artists are transforming the storied sails of the cultural vessel Arka Kinari into a suite of massive artworks. The six sails will be painted by artists from each of the six continents that the ship has visited, in a creative process that brings artists onto the sea and into collaboration with coastal peoples. The completed works will tour and exhibit independently from Arka Kinari’s voyage, reaching lands, contexts and spaces beyond the range of the mothership.
IF THE SAILS COULD TALK
Crafted in Poland during the Solidarność revolution and first installed on the ship in 1990, the sails saw thirty years of use, including an Arctic voyage, before coming into the hands of Filastine & Nova. They’ve since carried Arka Kinari through the North Sea, Atlantic, Caribbean, Pacific, three years of Indonesian voyages, and all the way down to the Antarctic winds of Tasmania, stopping in twenty-five nations, surviving squalls, cyclones and six months of statelessness during the pandemic.
In this long journey the sails have seasoned from unblemished white to a tea-stained color, and also show their age through the dozens of hand-stitched patches of emergency repairs.
Through Kanvas Mutiny the sails will not only continue to travel the world, but also have their own voice, raising awareness of threatened seas and coastal communities, deepening our kinship with the ocean’s human and more-than-human life, and remaining as artifacts to outlast the ship and her crew.
The completed pieces may exhibit singly or as an ensemble, and may be transported with the ship or independently as six folding canvases weighing under twenty kilograms per sail.
ARtists rising up faster than the seas
With an emphasis on bringing the artists onboard as resident sailors, Kanvas Mutiny intertwines artists with the ship’s crew and coastal peoples of Arka Kinari’s Indonesian home waters.
Swoon (North America) joined the crew of Arka Kinari for two weeks in June 2024, sailing to the remote island of Flores, where the locals could witness and participate in the creation.
Taring Padi (Asia) met Arka Kinari on the docks of Semarang, the nearest port to their home in central Java, in September 2024.
The waterfront of Semarang is already disappearing under rising seas, and the art production will be a public process in the flooded port zone adjacent to the ship’s mooring.
Conversations are in process with the four remaining artists from Africa, Europe, South America and Australia.
