Images: An island travels the world, 2013 – 2021.
The Inflatable island
Fuppidhoo is the name of The Island and means inflatable island in the Maldivian language, Dhivehi. Søren Dahlgaard has spend four years in the island rich country of the Maldives and met the well-known climate change activist and former President Mohamed Nasheed. These events inspired this project.
The photo series featuring the adventures of Fuppidhoo begin when it submerges in the seas of the Maldives. Fuppidhoo is stuck at the bottom of a lagoon but luckily gets rescued by a group of helpful scuba divers who pull Fuppidhoo out of the water and on to a boat. After the swim, Fuppidhoo is torn in a few places but nothing more than can be stitched.
Fuppidhoo sets sail heading North-West across the Arabian Sea, through the Suez channel to the Mediterranean Sea to reach the canals of Venice, Italy, a place that is also facing rising sea levels and thus frequently submerging streets, squares and houses. Fuppidhoo meets a lot of people who find Fuppidhoo’s mobile survival strategy unique and innovative. After 6 months in Venice, Fuppidhoo relocates to Australia. There Fuppidhoo is transported by foot, bike-cycle, train, ferry, jeep and even a mobile home to many places around the continent.
The Flying Island
The Flying Island’s Last Dance, 2018, (1 min excerpt).
Directed, produced and edited by Søren Dahlgaard.
Music: 1812 Overture by Tchaikowsky.
Duration: 15 min.
Produced in the sand dunes of Mungo National Park, New South Wales, Australia.
Fuppidhoo learns to fly in the wind like a kite on a meadow near The Great Ocean Road, over the sand dunes in Mungo National Park and bounces across the largest salt lake in the world, Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, South Australia. Fuppidhoo hangs from the edge of a cliff in Little Bay, south of Sydney and gets to slide down the snowy Mount Hotham. Fuppidhoo play with the kids at Princess Hill Primary School in Melbourne and meet kangaroos in Kangaroo Island.
The Walking Island
Produced in collaboration with students from Princess Hill Primary School in Melbourne, 2016.
After several years in Australia, Fuppidhoo takes part in art exhibitions and conferences on climate change in New Zealand, USA, China, Sri Lanka, Israel, Morocco and ends up back in Denmark, Europe. In the many places Fuppidhoo visit, it meets different people, pose in beautiful landscapes or certain places of particular art historical meaning, such as Robert Smithson’s well-known landart work Broken Circle/Spiral Hill in Emmen, the Netherlands, Bruce Nauman’s Square Depression in Münster, Germany and Agnes Denes Living Pyramid in Kassel, Germany. Fuppidhoo associates with other landart works and likes to visit with them. Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty in Utah is high on the wish list but so is visiting the landscapes of Iceland and Norway.
The Airborne Island
The wind catches the inflatable island and carries it across the largest salt lake in the world, Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, South Australia, 2018.
Fuppidhoo meets another inflatable island. They are the same shape, colour and size. They are like twins and can thus split up and be in two places at the same time, as there are many requests from art museums and festivals to meet. The new Fuppidhoo has a slightly smaller fan, thus lighter and flies in the wind with more ease, but that is the only difference. One of the islands visits a conference on how to deal with climate change migration in Morocco, where politicians and scientists from around the world carry it over their heads between the conference centre and the lunch tents.
A third, and smaller island joins the two 8-meter long islands. Now they are a group of islands. The three Fuppidhoo’s are excited to do more activities together in the future but the two older Fuppidhoo’s are worn from travelling the world for many years. They struggle to fully erect the palm trees.
