Re-imaging the Merchant Network of Charles Robin
The Channel Islands Contemporary Art Show.
Arthouse Jersey at Capital House, St Helier, Jersey 18 Jan – 25 Feb 2024
The Seaflower Venture is a short film made by Martin Toft based on the life of Charles Robin, Jersey’s premier cod-merchant who founded the most successful firm on the Gaspé Coast in 1766. Using extracts from his own diaries and a fictional biographical narrative of Robin’s life the film re-imagines a merchant triangle – a three-pointed trading system with production in Canada, management in Jersey and markets in Brazil, Italy, Spain, Portugal and England.
The film will be showing together with a selection of images from Brazil and a selection of archive objects from collections held in the Société Jersiaise at The Channel Islands Contemporary Art Show at ArtHouse Jersey, Capital House in St Helier between 18 Jan-25 Feb 2024 and later travel to the island of Guernsey in March to be exhibited at Art for Guernsey 7 March – 6 April. The production of the film was supported by a Development Grant from ArtHouse Jersey and involved collaboration with Jersey and UK based artists, such as Dean Conrad (script editor), Sam Hills (sound designer) and John Henry Falle who provided the narration and voice-over of a re-imagined Charles Robin.
