In 1819 the young French artist Théodore Géricault exhibited his painting
The Raft of the Medusa at the annual Paris Salon. The
huge canvas measured 5m x 7m and had taken him eight months to complete.
The figures on Gericault’s raft embody a
whole gamut of human emotions from hope to despair, and the raft itself can be seen as a kind of stage on which this drama is played
out. Once I began to think of the raft as a kind of theatre it was clear that it could become the setting for any number of little
scenarios. I decided to limit these to fifteen, which is the number of survivors on the raft, and each miniature bears one of their
names.
The Raft. 2005. Resin, Plasticard, brass, Preiser figures
