The Raft of The Katrina

by
Stephanie Anne Johnson

Materials: Salvaged wood, furniture, clothes, DVD player,
Slide projection - The Raft of The Medusa by Theodore Gericault 1819.

Date: 2006

Struggle against natural elements, abandonment, race, class, and nation. These are themes presented by Gericault in his monumental painting “The Raft of The Medusa”, projected here in the background.

The painting is based on an event in 1816 where a fleet of four French ships had travelled to Senegal, a stop in the colonialist trade route to take possession of a seaport town. The ship ran aground and was sinking. The wealthier passengers took the life-boats and the remaining passengers (crew and soldiers) were pulled along behind them on a raft constructed from salvaged wood.

At a certain point the raft was cut loose and the occupants were left to drift on this make-shift vessel for thirteen days. During that time, desperation and violence occurred including fighting with machetes. Gericault’s painting not only pictorialized the outrage expressed by the French public upon learning that the French crew and wealthy passengers had abandoned their own people, his composition accentuated the issue of slavery and emancipation using the figure of the Black man at the top right holding the flag.

Struggle against natural elements, abandonment, race, class and nation-state. Through the medium of television, the vast majority of the American public and indeed the world, now know that the United States government abandons its own; African American, Creole, poor, young, elderly and sick citizens in their time of greatest need. This non-response to the victims of Hurricane Katrina is but one specific instance in a series of historical and contemporary choices that have resulted in displacement and death for vulnerable and socially marginalized people in this country. With the tremendous resources available in the United States, these acts of neglect are a crime against the human family.

Special thanks to: Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby, Professor U.C. Berkeley