February 10 - June 14, 2009

Opening Reception February 10, 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.
MIT Museum Compton Gallery, 10-150 [map]
Gallery open daily 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Artist talks: 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24, and 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009

Despite the expansion of air transport in the last half century, global trade still moves mainly by sea, as it has for centuries. Ports and Ships illuminates the invisible global network of vessels crisscrossing the seas, delivering goods, and connecting continents. These colossal ships, signed by time and their rough maritime environment, radiate a multi-faceted beauty and melancholy. They are the aging, noble beasts of transport that serve our thoroughly modern desires to send, receive, and consume at a rate that is increasingly better, cheaper, and faster.

In this current wave of globalization, the demands of modern shipping have forced ports to adapt to the growing appetite for volume and speed in sea trade. Capturing on film the points of origin and destination of these worldtraveling vessels is the conceptual axis on which this project revolves.

Andrea Frank's book, Ports and Ships, will be available for purchase at the Museum Store.