The Pirate's Ship
Devil’s Rage
with Emilia Kabakov
YEAR: 2012
CATALOGUE NUMBER: 189
PROVENANCE
Redwood City, California, 2017
EXHIBITIONS
Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States
Temporary installation conceived for the public art project Artlantic: Wonder, November 8, 2012 to February 8, 2016
Redwood City, California, United States
To be installed permanently
The Devil’s Rage
A long time ago, a boat terrorized the seven seas. It sailed all over the world, searching for ships to loot. Every ship that crossed its path was attacked and destroyed. Nobody could defeat the Devil’s Rage; there was no weapon that could sink her, and no one brave enough to try.
The ship had once belonged to the Queen of England, until Captain Rowland Claysworth
hijacked her on her way to the colonies. From then onwards, the captain and his trusted crew pillaged and plundered their way to infamy. The captain’s notoriety grew until everybody knew and feared his name.
The pirates lived like kings; they feasted on only the best of meats, the finest of liquors, and they were the worst of men. They murdered hundreds and stole from thousands. Their hearts were consumed by greed and hatred, and no appeal for mercy was ever effective. On board their ship, however, they were a merry bunch, singing and dancing the nights away.
One night, the Devil’s Rage vanished. A storm had broken out and everything, including the pirates and all the treasure, disappeared. It was thought that nothing and no one had survived. For hundreds of years, people have searched for the Devil’s Rage, without success. Treasure hunters from all around the world have scoured the globe, looking for the remains of the greatest pirate ship in history. Nobody even knew where to look – until now. While researching the ship at an obscure New England library one day, I found an entry in the diary of one of the crew’s men, badly faded and nearly illegible, but essential to solving the mystery of the ship’s location.
