Leviathan f3

David Faithfull (Artist), Sae Oshio (Artist), Randi Annie Strand (Artist), Kouseki Ono (Artist)

    Research output: Non-textual formExhibition

    Abstract

    Leviathan f3 is an Artists Book (ISBN 978-1900599-28-3) created in response to a particular island landscape, Inch Kenneth, off the West Coast of Scotland and its extensive literary connections.

    Following on from previous Research of collaborations between writers and artists engaging with Landscape and particularly specific Place-names, this research looks at connections between place and its departed literary connections.

    Made famous by Boswell and Johnson on their Hebridean Tour in 1773, Inch Kenneth later became the family home of the infamous Mitford sisters.

    The literary connection with the island, re-enforced by Nancy Mitford, was additionally contrasted with the political dichotomy of this troubled family. As the Nazis swept across Europe one sister Unity, who eventually became interned on the island, wrote letters to Hitler; her sibling Diana married Mosley and later as eventual inheritor, Jessica promised to turn the island into a Soviet Submarine base.

    This was explored through the physical structure of ‘Leviathan: f3’. The red stain of the opening half page and additional compositionally split photographs and pages, representing the political disparity of Nazism and Communism.

    Now the island is a neglected retreat. The remnants of the family in Hebridean tradition left rotting into the landscape. The resulting photographic documentation of these relics is balanced with depiction of Island Landscapes and parallel metaphorical studies of two whale skeletons housed in one of the barns on the Isle.

    Preliminary investigations involved conspiracy theories about military and sonar testing effecting the behaviour and navigation of whales.

    During a residency on the island with Artists Collectice 6°W and working with writer Georgina Cockburn and photographer Shannon Tofts, the process of this symbiosis between the landscape and its literary palimpsest were investigated in detail.

    Leviathan f3 has been exhibited extensively and was recently purchased by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
    Original languageEnglish
    Media of outputOther
    SizeVarious Sizes
    Publication statusPublished - 2014
    EventLeviathan f3 - Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
    Duration: 26 Apr 201431 May 2014
    http://www.akibatamabi21.com

    Keywords

    • Inch Kenneth
    • Place-names

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Leviathan f3'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this