Turner Contemporary is pleased to announce a summer exhibition by Anna Boghiguian (b. Cairo, 1946), taking inspiration from the landscape and coastal history of the gallery’s location in Margate. The Sunken Boat: A glimpse into past histories will run from 14 June to 26 October 2025 and will offer a powerful exploration of global maritime histories and today’s environmental and geopolitical crises. The exhibition reflects Boghiguian’s distinctive practice that challenges viewers to confront the complex and urgent narratives of our shared past and present.

Boghiguian, an Egyptian-Canadian artist of Armenian heritage, creates large-scale installations that combine personal narrative, historical research, and political commentary. Her distinctive visual language—combining painting, drawing, collage, paper-mâché, glass, bronze, and fabric—confronts viewers with questions about colonialism, trade, migration, and ecological devastation. Her figurative work, including large-scale tableaux, is deeply connected to history and storytelling, addressing themes such as the impact of the Industrial Revolution and the climate crisis.

For The Sunken Boat, the artist has developed a new installation that explores the centrality of the sea in shaping histories of labour, trade, ecological collapse, and political conflict. It combines sculpture, painting, cut-out figures and sound, inviting reflection on rising sea levels and geopolitical tensions around undersea communication cables. The installation is composed of large-scale, brightly coloured cut-outs on Khadi paper using encaustic painting techniques, depicting an underwater scene of a sunken vessel, marine life, and communications infrastructure, that frames the sea as both witness to and active participant in global history.

Key earlier works include The Square, the Line and the Ruler: Ambiguous Philosophers / Ambiguous Politicians (2019), a life-size chess set that critiques power structures, and The Salt Traders (2015), an environmental installation that examines the salt trade’s connections to colonialism and climate change through painted sails and a Roman trading ship sculpture emerging from melting ice.

Boghiguian’s nomadic practice responds to specific locations, creating installations often likened to “giant pop-up books,” where spaces unfold as visitors navigate her installations.

The Sunken Boat promises a rich and multifaceted experience that weaves historical narratives, personal observations, and urgent contemporary concerns, inviting viewers to reconsider the sea’s pivotal role in shaping our collective past and unfolding future.

This exhibition is presented in collaboration with ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum and is curated by Sarah Martin with production by Katherine Lloyd and Joe Drakeford.

The exhibition is made possible with thanks to the generous support of the Henry Moore Foundation, Silvia Fiorucci with La Società delle Api, the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation and Maria Sukkar. Turner Contemporary receives public funding from Arts Council England and Kent County Council.

Text: Turner Contemporary