Ahab’s Head: American Vengeance

Ahab’s Head: American Vengeance opens December 13 at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The new installation is by Boston artist and sculptor Heidi Whitman. It is an immersive look at obsession, power, and the American whaling story.

Whitman is known for intricate “mental maps” that explore emotion, memory, and place. She applies that style to Moby-Dick. She reimagines Ahab’s pursuit as a layered map of fixation. Paper, shadow, and structure trace themes of violence and mania in the novel and in America today.

Her work has appeared at the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Fitchburg Art Museum, and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. It is held in museum, public, and corporate collections such as the Federal Reserve, Boston Public Library, and the McMullen Museum of Art. She received a Mass Cultural Council fellowship in 2021.

Ahab’s Head ties together maritime history, literature, and contemporary art, presenting the story through a modern lens.