Brigði Island

Brigði forms a collaboration of visual artist Miriam Sentler (1994, DE/NL/NO), Gaada Shetland (UK) and Pamflett Bergen (NO). This exhibition is the first outcome of this long-term project. Brigði Island is the most recent artist commission through an ongoing partnership between Gaada (Burra, UK) and Pamflett. (Bergen, NO)

Concept: Miriam Sentler (1994, DE/NL)
Texts: Copyright: Shetland Museum & Archives
Design & illustration: Jono Sandilands (Gaada), Miriam Sentler & Daniel Clark (Gaada)

Size & Binding: 279 × 432 mm, folded
Font: Century Old Style by Morris Fuller Benton from Adobe Originals & Carol Gothic by Alexander Lubovenko and Alexandra Korolkova from Paratype
Paper: Newsprint, 140 grams
Riso-printed at: Gaada, Toogs Artist Workshop, Isle of Burra, Shetland
Hand-bound by: the artist and Gaada team 
First edition: 15 copies


 
The project is generously funded by Pamflett, Gaada, and Mondriaan Fund

^{(2024) Artist publication, limited edition riso print, flag on pole. Outside Exhibition at Burra Isle, Shetlands (UK)}

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 oil-producing animal. Brigði translates to “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 in the UK.

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, especially developed for this exhibition, 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: A Contemporary Shark Hunt (2021), on which she went on a search for the animal herself, together with environmental humanities researcher Sadie Hale (1991, UK/NO).

Bexhibtion display with flag, Gaada, Isle of Burra, Shetlands (UK)



Visitor reading the Brigdi Gazette with the shark trail map around the island on the back, january 2024.




Brigdði Gazette Publication, designed and printed in collaboration with Gaada, Isle of Burra, Shetlands (UK)




Brigdði Gazette Publication, designed and printed in collaboration with Gaada, Isle of Burra, Shetlands (UK)



Brigdði Gazette Publication, designed and printed in collaboration with Gaada, Isle of Burra, Shetlands (UK)




Brigdði Gazette Publication, designed and printed in collaboration with Gaada, Isle of Burra, Shetlands (UK)




Brigdði Riso, print showing the shape-shifting shark throughout the centuries, designed and printed in collaboration with Gaada, Isle of Burra, Shetlands (UK)