‘The Boat’ at Somerset House — sculpture that makes us mourn and heal

This month, visitors to Somerset House’s courtyard will encounter a sombre scene: 140 blocks of charred wood arranged in a formation which recalls the cramped bowels of a slave ship. Titled “O Barco” (The Boat), this sculptural installation is the work of the Portuguese multidisciplinary artist Grada Kilomba. Fascinated by the healing potential of storytelling, Kilomba, a psychoanalyst, uses diverse mediums to convey trauma and memory as she seeks to fill in the gaps in history left in the wake of European colonialism.

Installed as a centrepiece to the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Kilomba’s counter-monument, using the boat as a symbol of maritime power, takes on dark connotations. As well as referring to a slave ship’s loading, each block of wood can be seen as representing a body, an individual violently uprooted from their native land during the transatlantic slave trade. Poignantly positioned in this neoclassical setting (Somerset House was once home to the British navy), the work is a reminder of how we continue to live with these ghosts of the past – a consequence of what happens when individual lives are not properly mourned or remembered.

But in her meticulous treatment of each block of wood – burnt by hand but also brilliantly inscribed in gold script with poems in several languages – Kilomba addresses both tragedy and transformation. The artist is as interested in creating a space of healing as for mourning, and this is where other elements of her practice also come in: at certain moments, performers and percussionists of African descent activate the 32-metre-long installation with energetic drumming and sharp, graceful choreography. Through this vibrant ritual, Kilomba produces memory, and in turn brings the forgotten to the fore.

To October 20, somersethouse.org.uk, 1-54.org