Cargo barges can look like hulking pieces of the industrial landscape. But in Seattle photographer Eirik Johnson’s new exhibit at Tacoma Art Museum, the view comes from below. Paddling a kayak on the Duwamish River, Johnson photographed the enormous hulls of transoceanic barges as they idled above him.
Leviathan Rising turns those vessels into abstract, imposing forms. TAM describes the exhibition as an exploration of ocean trade, environmental fragility and the machinery that carries cargo through uncertain waters. The photographs connect a working Seattle waterway to the global movement of goods across the Pacific.
The exhibition also moves beyond large-format photographs. Johnson collaborated with artist Daniel Carrillo on silver-plated daguerreotype photograms of Japanese fishing floats, adding a different kind of image—and a different connection to maritime life.
Visitors will encounter another layer of the project in the museum vestibule: an immersive sound piece built from underwater recordings made in the Duwamish. Welding and the distant pulse of a ship’s propeller become part of an acoustic portrait of human activity in the water.
The exhibition opens Thursday, Oct. 29, with a free reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at Tacoma Art Museum, 1701 Pacific Ave. No registration is required. Leviathan Rising will remain on view through Jan. 24, 2027. Before you reach the photographs, though, the sound installation offers a first hint of what these ships leave behind beneath the surface.
TAM’s exhibition information page can be found here.
You can see more of Johnson’s work at his website here.
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