Thar She Blows

I have seen "Mocha Dick" and he is enormous.

The 52' white felt whale that is currently residing in a gallery at the VMFA is truly a sight to behold.

It's actually built to scale over an armature of inflated vinyl. The barnacles are handcrafted. The scars were made by the zig-zag stitch on a sewing machine. Discreet zippers hold the enormous piece together.

Standing next to it gives a mere human a sense of the terror such a creature could cause to a boat full of men in the middle of the ocean.

Tristin Lowe's labor of love is a tribute to the same sperm whale that inspired Melville's "Moby Dick" and the accompanying items in the show reflect this.

There's a harpooning scene carved on a whale tooth (as big as you might expect).

A rare 1930s edition of "Moby Dick" shows an illustration of Captain Ahab. "To accomplish his object, Ahab must use tools, and of all tools used in the shadow of the moon, men are most apt to get out of order."


Aren't they, though?

A whale oil lamp from 1813 was made by using the free blow technique.  An Rockwell Kent engraving shows a lookout on a ship's mast. There's Robert Salmon's 1839 oil of "Boston Harbor."

As I moved around the whale, it struck me how tight the quarters were. Load-bearing columns abutted the piece and I wondered why it had been placed in such a small room, relatively speaking.

Turns out the only other place it would fit was the atrium (and too many revenue-generating parties are booked there) so it was put in this gallery at the back of the 21st century galleries out of necessity.

It's the smallest room "Mocha Dick" has ever been shown in.

That's not a complaint; I'd rather have it here and be tight than not have ever experienced it at VMFA.

I spent so long admiring the whale that I ended up talking with one of the guards.

"Do you ever get tired of it?" I asked.

"Never," he said emphatically. "For the first three weeks, I couldn't look away from it. Now if I work in another gallery, I come over here just to see it."

In an 1830 article, the whale was described as "As white as wool. As white as a snowdrift. White as the surf around him."

Every bit of that applies to the magnificent creature I saw today, but without the fear factor.

I'm willing to bet that you won't be able to look away, either.