New York: Josh Baer Gallery [in cooperation with Kent fine Art], 1991 (02), 12,6×17,8 cm. Exhibition invitation card for another cryptic Burden project, dealing in part with the artist’s preoccupation with disappearance. Exhibition details and artist statement verso.
THE SAILING DESTROYER is an attempt to modify radically an existing but obsolete warship into a sailing vessel. Modifying HMS Cavalier into a sailing vessel represents the “greening of a warship because it would no longer use fossil fuels as its power source. However, because its guns would still be functional, it is not a simple ‘swords to ploughshares transformation. In fact, because the ship’s engines would no longer be functional, the vessel would not produce the noise, vibration or infra-red heat signature commonly used by enemy ships and submarines to detect other vessels. Thus transform- ing an existing warship into a sailing vessel could actually be the forerunner of a new generation of ‘stealth’ warships. CHRIS BURDEN, September 1990
condition: Not mailed. Near Fine.
