Image: still from Sea of Oil Lecture Performance, 2020
Presented at Experiences of Oil, Stavanger Art Museum, November 2020. Duration: 17:51
The Sea of Oil lecture-performance investigates the political, material, economic, environmental, and cultural dimensions posed by promotional objects collected from the oil and gas industry. This examination utilizes Donna Haraway’s implosion method tools, as written about by cultural anthropologist Joseph Dumit. This research is also informed by de Certeau’s Practice of Everyday Life, through examining how objects are repurposed by their owners. The process also mirrors artistic critique.
This performance visually considers an Exxon Mobil mug found in a Houston thrift store bearing a map of Saudi Arabia with the year 2001; and a novelty USB drive, concealed within a miniature polymer ship, imprinted with the Diamond Offshore company name and logo. Diamond Offshore declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy under US law in late April 2020.