Prospecting Ocean

As part of a wealth of material produced over the course of Armin Linke’s three-year-long research project, Prospecting Ocean, this photo-essay demonstrates a single dimension of the artist’s exploration of the various artistic, academic and journalistic usages of film and photographic media in his practice. The photographs grouped in this series were taken by Linke during a research trip to Papa New Guinea, which in the context of his project, is a case study representative of his larger interrogation of the various forms of legislation, activism, and economy which exist in relation to commercially driven excavation projects. They document the Basamuk Refinery and Ramu NiCo project in Madang, both majority owned by Ramu NiCo Management MCC Ltd., as well as the concerted and sustained efforts of local communities to protest and curb the negative effects of action undertaken by these development projects.

In the text which accompanied the exhibition of Linke’s Prospecting Ocean at CNR-ISMAR in Venice in 2018, Stefanie Hessler writes that “the images recall the history of colonization in Papa New Guinea, ongoing economic dependency, and asymmetrical power relations,” and describes his overall project as laying bare "an intricate network of dynamics, dissecting how information is negotiated between scientific, legalism and economic entities and institutions, on both local and international levels.”

Indeed the content of Linke’s photo-essay was substantiated elsewhere in the exhibition, particularly in its central work: an hour-long film which ends with footage recorded by the artist during his trip to Papa New Guinea which properly investigates the experience and activism of local landowners and mine-impacted communities whose livelihoods are affected by the operations of seabed mining for copper, gold, zinc and silver by Nautilus Minerals Inc. and related exploitative industries which exist in the area. Together these different layers and outputs of research address the mounting pressure for thought and action to be dedicated to the future management of oceans in a way that leaves no photographic or filmic capacity unexplored. As such, it is emblematic of Linke’s commitment to exploring the limits of his artistic practice. 

- Elsa Gray