Monira Al Qadiri

The SS Murex series (2023 ) marks the start of the exhibition: porthole-shaped light boxes display archive images of historic oil tankers, which are all named Murex—after a type of snail that was once a popular decorative object in the Victorian era. This name was given to one of the first modern tankers back in 1892 ; it was built by an oil company that originated from a family business in the seashell trade. In the decades that followed, hundreds of oil tankers were named after seashells and snail species.

The centrepiece of the main room is the monumental mural Hero, which portrays the side view of a gigantic oil tanker in dramatic shades of black and red. It radiates industrial power—simultaneously captivating and threatening—and provides a commentary on the strategic significance of crude oil in the geopolitical power structure.

At the end of this exhibition space, the bow of a tanker emerges as a sculptural element: Bulbous Bow (2025), a large-format fibreglass sculpture, echoes the characteristic shape of the so-called bulbous bow—a feat of technical engineering that reduces a ship’s water resistance and improves its seaworthiness.

For the work Seasons in Hell (2025), eleven adapted tanker models are distributed around the room in a wave formation and function as narrators of geological and human history. 

The exhibition concludes with the new video work Oh Body of Mine (2025, 10 min.), in which Al Qadiri takes a closer look at a ship-breaking yard for decommissioned super-tankers in Bangladesh. Dismantling these ships is an industry that is primarily located in countries of the so-called Global South. The majority of European ships are dismantled in the three largest ship-breaking yards, which are found in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Due to the numerous toxic substances involved, this is a complex and dangerous process that also results in the social and environmental costs being exported, too. Accompanied by an adaptation of Arthur Rimbaud’s poem ‘The Drunken Boat’ (1871), Al Qadiri’s images depict apocalyptic-looking scenes and serve as a sombre conclusion to this multifaceted installation.