A 52-foot-long felt whale by artist Tristin Lowe will make its way to the Jepson Center this fall, holding space alongside works by internationally renowned artists.

Summon the Sea! Contemporary Artists and Moby Dick, on view at the Jepson Center from November 1 through January 26,  examines the work of six contemporary artists—Corey Arnold (American, b. 1976), Guy Ben-Ner (Israeli, b. 1969), Patty Chang (American, b. 1972), Tristin Lowe (American, b. 1966), Allan Sekula (American, 1951-2013), and Frank Stella (American, b. 1936)—who respond to, challenge, and celebrate ideas presented in Herman Melville’s literary classic Moby-Dick.

The artists in this exhibition were selected as a result of the epic, Moby-Dick-like nature of their own work, with some pieces painstakingly created over multiple years and others executed on a large scale. Highlights of the exhibition include Lowe’s Mocha Dick (2009) a 52-foot-long, ghostly white whale made out of industrial wool felt that has the scale, volume, an attention to biological detail of an actual sperm whale; a selection of 18 prints from Stella’s Moby Dick series, made from 1985–1997; and Ben-Ner’s Moby Dick (2000), a playful response to the novel through video storytelling.

 “As we celebrate the bicentennial of Melville’s birth this year, Moby-Dick is more prophetic today in 2019 than it was upon its first publishing, where it went all but unnoticed until well after Melville’s death,” said Rachel Reese, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Telfair Museums. “Melville was writing about whales, but he was also writing about the human condition. Importantly, the artists’ work in this exhibition encourages conversations about everything from our global port city here in Savannah to contemporary topics such as race, religion, ecology, and nature.”

“I’m so excited to be sharing Mocha Dick with audiences in Savannah, along with other works by major artists including Frank Stella,” Lowe said. “When Mocha Dick came into being 10 years ago, it was an incredible experience collaborating with the team at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia.

We all embarked on a journey to recreate a mythical creature, a legend. Since that time, I’ve been able to share this work with the public all over the country, and each time its incites a truly surreal experience with every individual who encounters it. Mocha Dickrepresents an opportunity to self-reflect on our human impact on the natural world: by staring into its eye, it becomes almost as a looking glass.

I was drawn to the subject of Melville’s Moby-Dick as it operates on a multitude of levels - it foretells the effects and costs of capitalism, the dawn the industrial revolution, the birth of the petroleum industry and its toll on a New Worlds' democratic origins and the soul of mankind.”