Babysitting A Shark In A Coldroom II (2019)
Kelvin Haizel travelled to the Comoros after he first heard of this archipelago in the Indian Ocean in the documentary ‘Island of Death’. The islands, which are not even mentioned on numerous geographical maps, were in the news in 1996 when a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed off the coast. More than 100 people died and their bodies were stored in the island’s only cold store, which consequently affected an important source of income. Inspired by the political poster of a Comorian activist (showing immigrants being torn apart by a shark in their attempt to cross over to the French-occupied Comoros island of Mayotte), Haizel created this performance-like photo series with a baby shark in the cold store that is now defunct. In doing so, he combines both dramas, which for him reflect the tragedy of the entire forgotten region.
Ghanaian artist Kelvin Haizel is interested in the change and essence of identity in areas torn apart by the colonial past. This project centres on the relations between the under resourced Comoros islands, which declared their independence from France in 1975. This made the French occupy Mayotte, summing up the prevailing conditions that has torn apart the unity of the archipelago. In 2014 the prosperous Mayotte became a French Department and as such part of the European Union. Haizel visited both worlds, investigating the crisis of the shared past in relation to the troubled present.
–> Iubeezy
–> Monopol Magazine
–> Neue Zürcher Zeitung
