Observations on recreational fishing
The culture around recreation fishing runs deep: conjuring the joy of being outdoors, obsession with equipment, and of course the size and weight of the catch. The exhibition “Fish and man,” plays on the legacy of recreational fishing, its link to masculinity and memory, and questions the role of the fish as the focus of the violent act.
Inspired by photographs and the poses people strike carrying the fish they’ve caught—the fish appears as a “trophy” and as an object at the center of joyful memories. More than the actual weight of the fish, or the violent act itself, the weight of the story and its emotional value that holds—and grows—each time the story is retold. So what happens when we remove the need to hook, catch, and kill the fish?
A privileged idea of “freedom” is demanded of the hobby. It is the same violent rights of men, when applied at national and global market scale, that has driven the mass execution of the very fish that are supposed to deliver joy, nostalgia, and the divine bond to nature. As recent headlines of illegal eel fishing have illustrated, increased friction emerges in recreational fishing culture, as this freedom bumps up against the ecological crisis it has helped manufacture.
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Part of the Locally Alien Festival.
