In 1997, Hall was invited to participate in an interdisciplinary research project examining ethical approaches to the fisheries crisis on Canada'a Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Working with scholars form accross the disiciplines, participating in discussion groups with stakeholders in Newfoundland and British Columbia, the artist spent three years listening, learning, and stretching her involvement with practicing fishers. For full details on the organization, sponsors and participants in this project, click here.
At the completion of the project, rather than writing a chapter for the book which would be published to represent the team's work, Hall opted to make her "chapter" using her language as a visual artist. Wanting to inlcude the the voices of fishers within the context of knowledge presented by biologists, ethicists, historians and others, Hall made a 12 panel series of digital images, which were included in the published text- Just Fish-Ethics and Canadian Marine Fisheries, edited by Rosemary Ommer, Harold coward and Tony Pitcher. (For publication information, click here.) Hall also designed the book's cover.
Based on conversations with inshore fishermen in Newfoundland over a ten year period, and with fishers in Haida Qwai (Queen Charlotte Islands, B.C) during a research trip undertaken for this study, Hall tried to record and share some of what she had gained from their expertise- to place of the knowledge of practice beside the knowledge of theory. To read the artist's Acknowledgement section from Just Fish, click here.
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