Below the Surface
Elisabeth Wieërs
The cruise industry has a very well and widely known visage. However, there is much that remains hidden behind this glamorous image. On the lowest decks of the ships the crew lives in small spaces and often terrible conditions. Suffering at the hand of those who deem themselves above those crew members. Figuratively, having more power over the lower class workers and literally, living above these people on the ship.
In my project I have tried to make the living situation visible in an intriguing way, to make people want to look at what is normally hidden. By showing not only hard facts but also very personal stories in a very clear and easy to read way I hope this information is not only easy to understand but lingers in the mind of the observer.
Using paper as a base material for my images creates a coherency between all the sperate stories. Because of the flexibility of the material it can show many different aspects of the cruise industry, both the polished face it puts on for the world and the vulnerability of its low wage workers. The first of these paper models being a one to one version of a crew room. I used this room to make tangible the living conditions but also as an anchor point to tie all the separate stories together in a large and complex web.
