The Mary Celeste

Oh Captain, My Captain depicts a solitary sailor aboard the Mary Celeste, content with salt spray in his beard and minimal human interaction. He has been alone long enough that returning to land now feels unnecessary. The sea, a few passing birds, and a general sense of permanence suffice. His life is the sea. The sea agrees.

The Mary Celeste itself was constructed in five days, each consisting of sixteen hours of continuous work. It now appears improbably inside a gallery, where a 30-foot boat occupies the center of the space, surrounded by doors that are notably smaller than the boat. A private collector later arranged for the vessel to be moved to a 14th-floor penthouse in downtown Los Angeles, where it remains—docked in the skyline, waiting to eventually sail nowhere in particular.

Jena Priebe is an installation artist, and Winston Secrest is a woodworker and pyrographic artist. Priebe has exhibited at Burning Man and MASS MoCA and maintains multiple permanent installations throughout Los Angeles. This installation marks her ten-year artist residency at The Spring Arts Tower. Secrest, who has shown extensively in Los Angeles, focuses on pyrographic works and custom wood design. He is also an avid surfer, a fact that reliably informs his work.

Both artists share a commitment to the preservation of land, sea, and wildlife, and work primarily with found objects and recycled materials—giving previously useful things something else to do.