In this groundbreaking book, Gill Perry looks at the vital role that islands play in contemporary visual arts. She shows that in response to urgent issues such as the climate emergency, migration and colonial and gendered histories, artists have created compelling and provocative works that resonate across continents and colonial archipelagos.
Perry navigates landscapes of the British Isles, Ireland, the Caribbean, Pacific Oceania, the Atlantic Ocean and the Galápagos, drawing on desert island myths and insights from Island Studies. From the 1970s to the present, she illuminates imaginative strategies of representation and metaphor in installation, multi-media and film projects by renowned artists including Robert Smithson, Lisa Reihana, Roni Horn, Rodney Graham, Tacita Dean, Karen McLean, Alice Maher and Rachel Fallon, Isaac Julien, Alex Hartley and Cornelia Parker. Taking into account diverse perspectives, she offers us a profound journey through artistic explorations of the island theme.