Cooking Sections
Performative Installation, 8.2 Surround Sound, 16 mins, 2021
Second chapter of the trilogy When [Salmon Salmon Salmon]]
Sound by Richy Carey
Open-net salmon farms are made of holes, the key structure of these underwater feedlots. Nets prevent circulation between an inside and an outside, at least in theory. They separate and concentrate bodies in space. In circles, automated feeders spin, bodies twist, guts revolve. Through the holes, excrement, drugs, synthetic colour, and parasites billow out, polluting the surrounding waters. But even if the nets break, farmed salmon remain captive; they can no longer escape their own modified bodies.
This immersive film installation explores the environmental impact of salmon farms, which can be traced far beyond the circumference of open-net pens. Salmon: Traces of Escapees is a recognition that nothing can be removed without leaving traces, no divestment can be disassociated from extractivism, and no domestication comes without the colonisation of the gut.
Salmon: Traces of Escapees is the second work in the When [Salmon Salmon Salmon]] trilogy. A light and sound installation, spread across 8 speakers and two subwoofers, I worked with Cooking Sections to edit the dialogue and compose an intricate soundscape that drew on the previous chapter and opened it out in new directions.
Salmon: Traces of Escapees was commissioned by SALT. It has also been exhibited at the 2021 Turner Prize Exhibition, 13th Shanghai Biennial, 2021 Jindřich Chalupecký Award, Bonniers Konsthall, and Fisher Center at Bard.