Leviathan 2000

Editor: This is Bo Bartlett's "Leviathan" from 2000, an oil and acrylic painting depicting figures around a whale carcass. The whole scene feels quite surreal and unsettling, especially the woman inside the whale. How do you interpret this work? Curator: The scene evokes a complex tapestry of themes, inviting a dive into social commentary and perhaps even ecological critique. Consider the whale itself: a leviathan, a biblical monster, a symbol of nature's immensity now violated and exploited. The figures around it – who are they in relation to this act of violation? What hierarchies of power and exploitation are at play here? Editor: That's a really powerful way to frame it. I was initially focused on the individual figures, but thinking about it as a power dynamic shifts everything. Curator: Precisely. The painting confronts us with our own position within systems of domination. Consider the woman within the whale – what could she represent in the painting's ecosystem of subjugation? Is she a victim, a complicit observer, or something else entirely? Think about how ideas of gender might also be relevant. Editor: I hadn't thought about a gendered perspective on the figures at all, I was too caught up in the overall feeling. But now I do see how my reading was pretty narrow! Curator: And there's no single right way to see it, but the artist stages what could be considered violence so centrally, don't you agree it asks us to consider where and how violence against marginalized groups continues in our culture? Editor: Yes, that's definitely clear now. It makes me consider how environmental and social injustices are often intertwined. Curator: Exactly! Art like this urges us to engage with critical inquiry into identity, ethics, and accountability to the world around us. Editor: Thanks! That’s given me so much to consider and I appreciate you helping me look beyond the surface of the image!