Brigði Island

Miriam Sentler, 2023 

The brigði is a sea monster, believed to be closely related to the basking shark, an animal hunted almost to its extinction by the early oil industry and small island communities before its protection in Scottish waters in 1994. 

The project starts from the various linguistic definitions of the name of the sea monster, brigði, meaning “basking shark” (Shetland dialect), "right to reclaim"/ "change" (Old Norse) and “bridge" (Nynorsk) and researches the meaning of the basking shark as a living point of connection between Bergen in Norway and Shetland, focusing on the perception and use of the oil-producing animal in the different coastal areas where it surfaces. 

Brigði Island is the most recent artist commission through an ongoing partnership between Gaada (Burra) and Pamflett (Bergen). Together the two organisations have been working to facilitate workshops and exchanges with visual artists from both Shetland and Norway, aiming to create a “bridge” between these two coastal communities.

In the exhibition outside the Toogs Artist Workshop, the dorsal fin of the shark is flying above the building, establishing Shetland as a “shark island.” By acquiring the Brigði Gazette in the print workshop, the visitor can go on a Shark Trail, visiting places around the coast of the island where the sea-monster was sighted.

The riso-printed artist publication collects sightings of the brigði around Shetland in the last 200 years, using old newspaper articles from the Shetland Museum & Archives as a starting point. It takes the reader on a journey through the eyes of Shetland fishermen, describing awe-inducing, frightening and sometimes comical experiences made on sea.

The work forms a continuation of Miriam Sentler’s previous project Cairban (2021), on which Sentlerwent herself on a search for the basking shark, together with environmental humanities researcher Sadie Hale (1991, UK/NO).

Miriam Sentler (b. 1994 in Germany, living and working between Norway and the Netherlands) is a contemporary artist and Ph.D. research fellow at the University of Oslo (NO).

Sentler's interdisciplinary work emphasizes the changing of landscapes, focussing on the cultural and environmental legacy of (fossil fuel) industries and the modern era. Through interdisciplinary projects and artist residencies, she deals with questions of belonging, myth-making, imagination, and sacrifice in different (post)industrial and maritime contexts.

 

Supported Creative Scotland and the Shetland Charitable Trust, Pamflett and Norway Art Council