Yincke of the Medusa , 2006

Polystyrine, latex, paint, epoxy, rope.





Set in the middle of the gallery is a replica of the Raft of the Medusa, the French frigate which ran aground off the coast of Senegal due to a scandalous miscalculation in the handing over of the ports from French to British Colonial rule after the Napoleonic wars of 1816. The ship's lifeboats were commandeered by the radically negligent captain, his political colleagues, and the new British Governor of Senegal. Of the 350 who did not make the cut, 150 took apart the non-structural and decorative elements of the Medusa to lash together as a raft, while the remaining 200 stayed on the ship. The first night took with it ten or twelve "unfortunate creatures, having their lower extremities entangled in the interstices left between the planks of the raft" which cost their lives. The second night suffered great mutiny, and by the third, the few who remained fed on the dead for the remaining 10 days before rescue.


After the remaining 15 survivors were found, five dying soon after, the reaction of the French government was to cover up the incompetence of the politically appointed captain. However, the naval engineer and geographer, Alexandre Correard, and the surgeon Henri Savigny soon returned to France to find that very little information about the incident had been reported to the press. They petitioned to bring their case to justice facing persecution, fines, and imprisonment. Finally, they decided to address the nation directly with an expanded manuscript which was widely acclaimed and revised into a substantial book. Tremendously successful, Correard decided to open a press at the Palais Royal and went on to publish political pamphlets. His print shop labeled under the auspices of Au naufrage de la Meduse , became a congress for political dissidents "...and a thorn in the side of the government"11.


One of his empathizers was the French painter Theodore Gericault, whose most renowned body of work would soon revolve around the tale of the Medusa and it's handling by the French Authorities. In the wake of the scandal, Gericault set upon "exposing himself to the sting of a fresh exerience, to sharpen his flagging sense of the reality of his subject by immersing himself in experiential research 23. Gericault studied the corpses of the victims, visited the beaches of Le Havre to observe the marine skies, he even hired Correard who had been the Medusa's carpenter, to build a scale model of the raft inside his studio.


For this project we've created a replica of this model . The raft is without crew, and it's apathetic sheen seems to recall a suffering more akin to a severe sunburn after a day in the magic Kingdom. The only thing on board, a series of supply barrels. Their cargo includes ornaments resembling carved wood, flora specimens, rusty nails, Gum Arabic and wine. These all make up the ingredient list from a 1571 recipe for an Iron Gall ink. Where the bow of the raft formerly stood, the're re-organized to create a sculptural rendering of an object similar to a Rococo Cartouche that formerly adorned a19th century French map of Senegal. While the subjects from the cartouche make up the indexical recipe of an ancient ink that may have been used in it's own printing, the curation of the elements were far less inert. These cartouches often featured illustrations of specific goods indigenous people or topographic scenery that functioned as an provincial guide to the resources of this West African c colony that were coveted by the French and other colonial powers.


The remainder of the raft, having been previously scavenged from the grounded ship, is once again cut apart and used as raw material in the construction of a primitive printing press.


-Cheyenne Weaver & Ryan Taber, 2006




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