Phantom Islands
In Isle of Seven Cities, visual artist and filmmaker Stéphanie Roland explores geographical fictions: islands which have been mentioned on maps, but never existed in reality.
‘Absence is terrifying and sometimes,
we have to fill it with stories.
While every story must have a beginning,
Its source is often elusive, lost in time.’
With this beginning, Stéphanie Roland immediately sets the tone of voice of her distinctive work. Isle of Seven Cities tells the story of phantom islands: islands whose existence has been accepted for a certain period of time and which have been mentioned on maps, but have subsequently been removed because they have been proven not to be real.
With visual and textual narratives, Roland (1984) documents seven ghost islands: Eon Island, Hy-Brasil Island, Aurora Island, Antilia, Isle of Demons, Island of California and Podesta Island. Six years ago, she started researching these islands during her travels and visits to geographical institutes. Blending documentary and fantasy, the Belgian visual artist and filmmaker combines fictional and real archives in a non-linear, fragmented logic.
Most phantom islands were ‘discovered’ in the era of the maritime explorations organised by the European powers in the fifteenth and sixteenth century. Expeditions scoured the globe, accounts were written and islands appeared on the map – not seldomly with mysterious stories about curious sounds or inhabitants. Some of these islands were depicted as paradises with beautiful flora and fauna, others as places full of misfortune and demons. For years, sometimes centuries, people believed they really existed and they were copied onto new maps.
Let’s take Hy-Brasil, which was described as ‘an abundant garden paradise: the plants were in full bloom, the trees bore sweet fruit, and the soil was strewn with sparkling jewels’. The earliest records of this island date from the sixth century, when Celtic monks ‘found’ it in the Atlantic off the west coast of Ireland. Hy-Brasil was a myth in oral tradition for a long time, until it was documented in writing and appeared on various maps. Over the course of five hundred years, its shape changed from a ring to a reef to a small archipelago, and its geographical position drifted further off the coast, ‘as though it were afraid of being discovered’.
Just as mythical is the story of the Island of California, which was described as ‘an earthly paradise, peopled by women who lived like Amazons, without any men. (…) Five hundred gryphons – mythical animals that are part eagle, part lion – protected them, devouring any man who would dare to venture too close to them.’ This reminds me of De Facto Live’s youngest guest ever: Nelis Smouter, who ‘discovered’ the island Tinelië, where mythical animals lived and an entire society was invented. The sheer enthusiasm of our young guest might resemble the fervour of the explorer’s accounts back in the days.
Yet, some phantom islands still have a real impact on the current day world, mostly for economical or geopolitical reasons. Maybe the best example is Podesta island: it was ‘discovered’ in 1879 in the South Pacific and even though the island was not sighted again, it appeared on several nautical charts. As it was said to be situated close to Chile, this country claimed the existence of Podesta in discussions on the Antarctic Treaty, as this would influence its rights in the area. In 2010, Podesta resurfaced on Google Earth, whereas Wikipedia persistently denies its existence. Thus, the controversy continues until today.
Isle of Seven Cities is a logical continuation of Roland’s work. With films and installations, she explores the ambiguous zones between reality and fiction. Earlier, she produced a film about Podesta Island (2021) and made the installation Terra Nullius (2022), about the no-man’s-land on Antarctica, that we at De Facto obviously also like a lot – see our country page about this relatively untouched land that formally belongs to no-one even though parts of it are claimed by several countries.
In Isle of Seven Cities, Roland combines mystical images of undefined nature with short texts, maps, quotes and film stills. The book is magnificently designed by Rob van Hoesel, with a fabric-style sleeve and transparent pages printed with cobalt blue ink. From the whole, a meta island emerges, one that could exist if the reader believes it to.
Isle of Seven Cities (2024) by Stéphanie Roland is published by The Eriskay Connection.
