When a platform is removed, nothing remains visible for the bare eye above the water surface: nothing refers to the history of the place. With this work, Engelberts imagined what people would see in the future if they would fly over that seascape, searching for signs of the past. It is filmed with a drone that is searching for something, which contributes to the feeling of trespassing and secrecy. The work combines this film footage with a DIA slide show with names of the platforms, the sounds of the projector gives both rhythm to the film and also references the type of machines used in the beginning of the offshore industry. For the uninitiated viewer, the names on the slides seem regular bird names, but moving through the slides more familiar names like Brent spar reveal the reference of the period in which Shell UK has given platforms the names of birds. With species extinction, are the drones replacing birds in this world?

During Rijksakademie OPEN the installation was accompanied by Forgotten seas. A twenty-minute life performance of a sound piece developed with musician and artist Marcel Imthorn. The piece consists out of field recordings Engelberts made during trips on maintenance ships, oilrigs and platforms, together with sounds recordings from the Forties field platforms made in the seventies. It depicts a life cycle on the Northsea, from first encounter till the decommissioning of a platform.

For a related series with the same title, prints of a seemingly empty sea were overlaid with a reflective material, once illuminated by a flashlight you can read the platform names. Treasure finder, Barnacle, Indefatigable, Vanguard all names of fields on the North Sea. The reflective surfaces referencing the name signs on platforms, always visible at night.

Credits:

Title: Future Maps For Hollow Places
Format: 4K / 16:9 Colour, sound
Duration: 03:43” (loop)
Edition: 3 + 2AP

DIA slideprojection with text, steel

Title: Forgotten Seas
Sound performance with Marcel Imthorn
Duration: approx. 20 min.

Courtesy: Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten
Photographer: Sander van Wettum

Barnacle
Digital print on hahnemühle photo rag, screenprinted with reflective ink
100 x 64 cm
edition 5 + 2ap

Indefatigable
Digital print on hahnemühle photo rag, screenprinted with reflective ink
70 x 45 cm
edition 5 + 2ap

Treasure finder
Digital print on hahnemühle photo rag, screenprinted with reflective ink
70 x 45 cm
edition 5 + 2ap

Vanguard
Digital print on hahnemühle photo rag, screenprinted with reflective ink
70 x 45 cm
edition 5 + 2ap