EXHIBITION

The Fogo Island Arts Gallery presented Between Land & Sea, a solo exhibition of work by London-based artist Shezad Dawood featuring textile-based paintings, video, and a 1970s hand-made fishing net reworked by the artist. Materially and culturally specific to Fogo Island, the works emerged from Dawood’s time spent in residence with Fogo Island Arts and through conversations with local craft practitioners, fishers, and other community members. The resulting pieces integrated histories of economic and social processes, land-use, and our evolving relationship to the sea.

Also on view was Episode 5: Ismael from Dawood’s Leviathan Cycle, commissioned by A Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam, Fogo Island Arts, Museum of Contemporary art Toronto (MOCA) and Toronto Biennial of Art. The film takes place primarily on a cargo ship in international waters and combines narrative explorations of globalised trade, maritime law, and the rights of the individual with archival footage of Newfoundland fishing and whaling practices, drawing parallels between human and marine species migration, exploration and individual agency.

PUBLIC PROGRAMME

Between Land & Sea was accompanied by a series of public programs happening in March and April 2022, featuring invited interdisciplinary speakers in conversation. Combining local, experiential knowledge and current academic research, the programs will address issues of resource extraction, sustainability, and marine welfare, situating the exhibition within larger discourses of global concern.