Bas Jan Ader :: Tea Party 1972
Bas Jan Ader.
Various works by Bas Jan Ader, including his final piece, In Search of the Miraculous, in which the 33-year-old artist attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a small sailing boat. A few weeks following his departure, contact with the artist was lost, and he was never heard from again.
In order to fall, you have to let go, to lose control - just as you must if you allow yourself to feel the full force of overwhelming grief. In a superb documentary film Rene Daalder has made about Ader’s life and work, it is suggested that the act of crossing the Atlantic in such a small boat was another way to lose control, to place himself at the mercy of a force greater than himself. Perhaps he let go of the steering wheel, surrendering himself to the ocean as he had surrendered to the force of gravity. We will never know. [via]
