Monument to Habitat Compensation Island
2019
Book, in English and Arabic
with Marina Zurkow
5.5x8.5, 120 pages
Distributed by Printed Matter
Monument to Habitat Compensation Island was the resulting artwork from research about a tiny artificial island off the coast of Abu Dhabi, made from the dredge spoils of a new Supermax shipping channel as a nature preserve. After chartering a boat to the island, talking with local divers about the island, and getting a first-hand account of the project by its lead urban planner, we realized that this island was a tiny but powerful
symbol of the Anthropocene.
To tease out more perspectives around our hypothesis, we curated essays from Emirati artists Abdullah Al Saadi and Ayesha Hadhir; Emirati curator Munira Al Sayegh; Ecotheorists Nils Bubandt, Una Chaudhuri, Elaine Gan; and Emirati Urban Planner Graham McKay. Arabic translation by Ban Kattan, and Arabic design consultation by Zinah Maher Al Bazerbashi. This work is printed in English and Arabic is available at Printed Matter.
Project website: https://monumentisland.com/