The exhibition Gander Islands brings together three videos connecting two island sites: the Gander International Airport terminal and the Fogo Island Arts artists’ studios on Fogo Island on the east coast of Newfoundland. Although dating from different periods and having different functions, these sites share the reality of being on islands, a fact accentuated by their geographical proximity. Despite this isolation, both the airport and the studios open onto the world through a highly characterised concern for design and architecture.
Gander airport, a four-hour drive from St. John’s, Newfoundland, was built in the late 1950s. The modernist spirit of the age is apparent in its furniture by influential designers such as Ray and Charles Eames and Robin Bush, a commissioned mural by the Canadian painter Kenneth Lochhead and a terrazzo floor with motifs reminiscent of Mondrian. These very strategic aesthetic choices contribute to presenting a progressive image of Canada to travellers in transit―for whom, in most cases, the airport would be their only contact with the country. However, this refuelling stopover necessary for intercontinental flights quickly became obsolete thanks to the rapid progress made in aeronautics. Today the imposing lounge in the international area is practically deserted; only the American armed forces and a few dignitaries flying on private airplanes pass through it on occasion. In a series of fixed shots and brief tracking shots playing in a loop on three large screens suspended in the gallery space, Myriam Yates dissects this incongruous space and, in the slow unfolding of the images, lets the history of the site enter into them.
