Gabriella Hirst discusses her work, ‘Ambergris (Baleen)’ in our exhibition, Sea Inside

Gabriella Hirst examines the exploitation of whale bodies in nineteenth-century society as a reversal of tales of men swallowed by whales. Hirst’s work, Ambergris (Baleen), 2025, was commissioned for Sea Inside as part of the Sainsbury Centre’s Can the Seas Survive Us? season.

The bodies of whales were turned inside out in nineteenth century Europe: their oil lit up cities and whalebone was found in everything from umbrellas to women’s corsets, driving many species to the brink of extinction. Hirst references the material and mythic aspects of this history. The slatted blind echoes the structure of the baleen inside a whale’s mouth that acts as a feeding filter, while its delicate carving reminiscent of sailors’ scrimshaw records whale tales, from Jonah to Moby Dick to Pinocchio. The sculpture is made from an agricultural plastic, a product of the petrochemical industry, which came to replace the varied uses of whale materials.

These are some of the things you may find going into the belly of a whale: Jonah, Geppetto, Popeye, the Heart of the Ocean, the Magic School Bus, the Pequod’s anchor, Saint Lucy’s eyes, oil lamps, harpoons, gloves, trawler netting, the Little Mermaid, the Walrus’s oysters, pearls, glass beads, Nemo, cotton blooms, trophy corals, sails and mastheads, deep sea cables, kelp, Humbolt’s Atlas, Melville’s lesser works, encyclopaedias, Kant, Pinocchio, anatomical diagrams, Ox-heart tomatoes, Adam’s rib, Neptune’s necklace, fishhooks, hair extensions, wax-soft hands, Willy (free), Bas Jan Ader (found), Christmas lights, Chambered nautilus, barnacles, seahorses, currency, crabs etc.

Sea Inside is part of a six-month season of interlinked exhibitions and events that explore the question Can the Seas Survive Us? and runs until 26 October.

Filming, interview and editing: Kate Wolstenholme