Philip Hoare Lecture: Of the Less Erroneous Picture of Whales: The Whale in Myth, in Industry, & in Futurity
Thursday, January 14, 2016 at 6 pm
The whale is the ultimate shape-shifter: from creation myth to industrial resource and ecological emblem, it has become what ever we want it to be. In the fluid, psychic disjuncture of the meeting of natural history and human history, no other animate creature is so freighted with our demands.
Philip Hoare examines these culture shifts in art, literature, and personal memoir, and wonders if, like Herman Melville, we might still conclude of the whale, I know him not, and never will.
Hoare is the author of: Leviathan, or the Whale; The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea, and The Sea Inside.
Sponsored by the RISD Painting Department in Conjunction with The Division of Fine Arts, Nature, Culture, and Sustainability Studies, The RISD Nature Lab, and the Center for Student Involvement.
