Shezad Dawood, Leviathan Cycle, Episode 3: Arturo, 2017, single screen 17:25 mins.
Nominated by Skinder Hundal, New Art Exchange.
Leviathan Cycle is a multi-episode film series and part of Dawood’s groundbreaking multimedia Leviathan project (2017-), exploring the intersection of climate change, migration and mental health. Each film has been crafted as a self-contained work blending fictional narrative and documentary footage, with the possibility of being endlessly reconfigured with other episodes to create distinctive storylines extending from the evolving corpus of Leviathan material.
Ben and Yasmine arrive at a strange and enigmatic community based on an island in the lagoon of Venice. They engage in scavenging raids to the mainland and partake in the group’s Bacchanalian orgies. Their gluttonous sexual vagrancy is paralleled with images of overfishing and unnecessary cruelty in the fishing industry of the Mediterranean.
Dawood (UK) works across the disciplines of painting, film, neon, sculpture, performance, virtual reality and other digital media to ask key questions of narrative, history and embodiment.
leviathan-cycle.com/information/
Commissioned by Leviathan – Human & Marine Ecology