| Title | What the Sea Has Seen |
| Subtitle | A Timeline of the Middle Passage and Beyond |
| Artist / Creator | Karen Viola |
| Press Name | Climbing Tree Press |
| Artist's Nationality | United States |
| Place of Publication | White Plains, NY |
| Publication Date | 2020 |
| Author of Text | Karen Viola |
| Contributors | (numbers data) Emory University/slavevoyages.org |
| Process / Technique | Home studio Epson Artisan inkjet printer, Shibori resist-dyeing with natural indigo |
| Number of Images | 8 |
| Structure / Binding | Accordion cloth pockets and sewn-in front and back matter, glued-in covers |
| Medium / Materials | Natural indigo, 100% organic cotton, balsa wood, acrylic paint, Epson Claria® Ink, hand-dyed and painted white cotton gloves, produce netting, rope |
| Paper Stock | Parchment cardstock paper |
| Number of Pages | 10 pages plus 9 double-sided folding cards plus 1 fold-out map plus covers |
| Dimensions (WxHxD) | 3.25 x 6 x 1.25 inches. Extends out to 41 inches |
| Edition Size | Limited edition of 4 |
| Box / Wrapper | Yes. Hand-dyed and painted cotton envelope-wrap with signed colophon tag |
| Signed & Numbered | Signed & Numbered Edition |
Like too many other white people I grew up blind to my own privilege with a white-washed, grossly incomplete history education and with much of the horrors of white supremacy culture and structural racism unseen. Until now. This book offers a graphic synthesis of my self-guided study of chattel slavery and the Atlantic slave trade. It is an interactive timeline that displays total numbers of enslaved Africans embarked on ships, inspired by the data presented at the public database slavevoyages.org. Each 50-year vessel card is but a tip of a historical iceberg, summarizing a chronological selection of events from a Western perspective, focusing on the impact of colonization. The fabric of the book is made with responsibly-sourced, organic cotton and natural indigo. White cotton gloves dipped in indigo and red paint are provided for further visceral contemplation, asking readers to consider the ‘blood on their hands.’
Artist Bio
Karen spent her childhood in Vancouver and Toronto, Canada. She has been in love with books since before she could read them, and her first real job was arranging book display tables at a large bookstore. She ventured to New York City to earn her BFA at Parsons School of Design, then moved to White Plains, NY to grow a family and design innovative children’s books. She has extensive professional experience in the book publishing industry as an art director, graphic designer, illustrator, writer, and paper engineer, and now runs her own freelance art and design business and micro-publishing shop, Climbing Tree Press. Karen also walks in the woods, a lot. She works both digitally and traditionally with a variety of textural papers, hand-dyed textiles, and upcycled found materials. Her endless fascination with the Earthling journey informs her ever-unfolding studio practice.