The shipwreck narrative is used to explore globalization, colonization and climate change in the masterful works of contemporary American painter Alexis Rockman

In Shipwrecks, Alexis Rockman (born 1962) looks at the world’s waterways as a network by which all of history has traveled. The transport of language, culture, art, architecture, cuisine, religion, disease and warfare can all be traced along the routes of seafaring vessels dating back to and in some cases predating the earliest recorded civilizations.

Through depictions of historic and obscure shipwrecks and their lost cargoes, Rockman addresses the impact–both factual and extrapolated–the migration of goods, people, plants and animals has on the planet.

This timely publication, which includes essays from leading scholars, is propelled by impending climate disaster and the current largest human migration in history, taking place in part by waterway.