TURN TIDE
U N TA GGA B L E
TURN OF THE
TIDE Life on Canada’s Fogo Island was in jeopardy until the remote outpost in Newfoundland was brought back to life by art, tradition and innovation
WRITER Emma Barlow PHOTOGRAPHER Finn Beales
ull of energy and with a poem never far from his lips, retired teacher, fisherman and keen storyteller Roy Dwyer leads us on a winding trail over large granite rocks. Bushes full of red partridge berries and wildflowers spring up all around us and the sea rushes in at the ragged shoreline below. ‘There aren’t many fishermen left here now,’ says Roy. ‘The old buildings and fishing boats have mostly gone.’ We reach the top of the cliff and our guide points towards a sleek, white wooden artist’s studio at the edge of the shore. It’s a futuristic design, full of razorsharp angles that play tricks with the light – a complete contrast to the green hillsides dotted with sheep, and buildings that have stood for centuries. What we’re looking at is Squish Studio – one of many new and architecturally beautiful structures on Canada’s Fogo Island. And it’s this marrying up of the
F
068
old and new that’s providing the key to preserving a way of life that has gone on for more than 400 years. One that was very nearly lost for ever. Fogo Island is located off the north-east coast of Newfoundland. Even in the 21st century, it’s an isolated place – we’ve taken a five-hour flight from London, driven five and a half hours, and hopped on a ferry to get here. It’s hard to imagine what it must have been like for those English and Irish settlers who boarded their boats in the 1700s with the dream of making Fogo Island their home (and whose accents can still be heard today). But the mixture of old and new isn’t the island’s only quirk. It’s thought that Fogo Island is one of the ‘four corners’ of the world, and there are people who claim to have seen the edge of the planet from the top of Brimstone Head on the north side of the island. There are also seven seasons here, including Pack Ice Season and >> Audi Magazine
069
Roy in Tilting, where his family have lived since the 1700s: ‘It’s different to most tourist hot spots. Other places have palm trees – we’ve got rocks and cold water’
Berry Season – a time when the landscape becomes as colourful as one of the island’s handcrafted patchwork quilts. ‘We’re approaching Berry Season now,’ says Roy, handing me some wild blueberries. ‘We just need a bit more sun to ripen everything up.’ After admiring the Squish Studio, Roy drops us a few miles west to Joe Batt’s Arm, where the impressive silhouette of the Fogo Island Inn, hugging the rocks on its giant stilts, dominates the cliffs. Built in the shape of a cross – or crossroads – the structure of this luxury hotel is another bold example of how Fogo Island is bridging the gap between the past and present. Even its wacky-looking stilts are an homage to the past, and I find myself smiling whenever I spot the same hotchpotch of supports holding up the island’s old fishing stages – the platforms where fishermen unload their catch. 070
Audi Magazine
The studios – there are four of them – and the inn are the work of the Shorefast Foundation, a registered charity that was started by Zita Cobb, a Fogo islander and businesswoman turned social entrepreneur. We meet her at the inn, in a beautiful library space that’s painted in what I soon come to appreciate as ‘Fogo Island green’. Part turquoise, part neon green, it’s a hue that’s found on absolutely everything here – from boats and window frames to knitted socks. Zita grew up on the island, but like a lot of the younger people she left to go to college and didn’t return. ‘When I did come home I could see it becoming… less,’ she says. ‘Then after the ban on cod fishing, the island became a lot less. And that was very scary for me.’ Cod is a big deal here and provided life with a rhythm that went on for centuries. Northern cod was plentiful, but this
attracted fleets from around the world, and after decades of overfishing the species was almost wiped out. In 1992 the Canadian government banned cod fishing in the North Atlantic until stocks recovered. The effect was devastating. Many Fogo islanders had no choice but to leave the place their families had lived for eight generations, and it looked like their way of life might be lost for ever. Zita’s own father left, but not before nailing the gate closed and declaring he would never be back. ‘When there’s a big flood, or a volcano, everyone rushes in to help, at least for a little while until the next crisis,’ she says. ‘But the thing about the disintegration of small places, and it’s happening all over the world, is that no one rushes in and that place just slowly disappears.’ Zita’s mission was clear: ‘I knew I wanted to create something that would >> 071
U NTAGGA BL E Fogo Island’s craft tradition stretches back centuries and the inn’s beautiful quilts and wooden furniture are made by local people 072
Audi Magazine
073
The Bridge is a retreat for writers and the only studio built inland – an homage to the inshore cabins where many of the islanders spend the icy winters
The ban on cod fishing was disastrous. Today, shrimp, lobster and crab are now the staple catch
074
grow another leg on the economy, something that would sustain the community long after I’m dead and gone. And that it would be community-owned.’ With help from her brothers, Zita arrived at the idea of bringing art to the island. ‘Art was a way to put this community in the conversation about where we are all going together. And what does it mean to be alive – to belong,’ she explains. ‘Those conversations don’t happen in business.’ In 2003 the Cobbs set up the Shorefast Foundation, with all the proceeds from Fogo Island Arts and the Fogo Island Inn belonging to the island and its population of around 2500 inhabitants. Of course, Fogo Island Inn isn’t an ordinary inn. It, like the artist studios, was designed by architect Todd Saunders who grew up in Newfoundland but visited Fogo Island as a child. Todd has said he felt his Audi Magazine
whole life had been building up to the moment he took the call from Zita. And Todd came up with a series of extraordinary buildings – buildings that manage to stay true to the architecture of the island, and yet reach out into the future. The first time I walk into the inn, I’m blown away. The wooden cladding is exactly like that of the traditional Salt Box homes found all over Newfoundland, but it’s the views that really strike you. Huge windows in the lobby and restaurant provide a panorama of the ocean, and it’s here where I see whales for the first time. A few of us huddle up close to the glass to watch the spray come up from four or five blowholes before the humpbacks sink into the depths. The food, of course, is locally sourced, and as a lover of seafood I’m in my element. After the cod fishing ban, islanders adapted by catching shrimp, lobster and
crab. Happily, cod is back on the menu, although there are strict controls on how much can be caught. There’s also local salt lamb, caribou moss and more of those delicious berries. While Fogo Island Inn is a luxury hotel, with rooms costing $1600 (CAD) per night, you won’t find a stuffy concierge in sight. There’s a kitchen table where you’re greeted by smiling local ladies who will organise your time on the island. This includes matching you up with a community host who will show you around – hosts such as Roy. Every piece of wooden furniture – the bar, dining chairs and bedside tables – is made by local people in a workshop down the road, and the island’s seamstresses and knitters are responsible for the cushions and traditional quilts on the bed. These stunning modern representations and reinterpretations of traditional >> 075
U NTAGGA BL E
Mike Dillon in his grandfather’s tool shed on Little Fogo: ‘Zita Cobb did something special. She saw beauty in the place that most of us took for granted’
Fogo design are also available to buy from the online Fogo Island shop. As well as giving the inn its authentic feel, these decisions and practices also have the benefit of providing local people with jobs. It’s all part of Zita’s mindful take on running a business – even during construction of the Inn, Zita insisted on using as much from the island as possible, or if it wasn’t available here, buying it from Newfoundland. ‘I know where every little nail in this place comes from,’ she tells me. Of course, some people were suspicious of the changes, especially the older generation. ‘When that hotel started going up they were a bit sceptical,’ says Mike Dillon, who runs boat tours for the inn. ‘But when they started to see that young people were coming home because there was work, they soon changed their tune.’ In many ways Mike is doing a similar job to Zita – albeit on a smaller scale. He takes 076
us out on his boat to Little Fogo, a series of smaller islands where his family lived before moving to Fogo Island in the 1930s. They’ve holidayed here – where the only neighbours are puffins – ever since and Mike is determined to maintain his wooden properties for future generations. Over a cup of a tea in his grandfather’s tool shed, Mike ruminates on what’s happened to the place he calls home. ‘Zita did something really special,’ he says. ‘She saw beauty in the place that most of us took for granted, and she was in a position where she could promote it and show everyone the real Fogo.’ But what of the art? On a slightly grey Thursday we make the short trip from the inn to the Museum of the Flat Earth to be enlightened by artist Kay Burns. Clutching a Flat Earth coffee that her husband roasts next door, Kay shares the evidence she has gathered that point to the Earth being
flat. It’s an enthralling journey and one told with a wink and smile. Kay moved to the island four years ago from Canada and now gets to mix with world-renowned artists who come to here to complete residencies and make use of the glorious art studios. ‘One of the things about creating or embellishing stories here is that it’s very much embedded in the culture,’ she says. ‘Newfoundlanders are storytellers, so you can kind of play with that notion and still be fundamentally drawing on truthful elements.’ It’s another compelling example of the old meeting the new. For Zita, the power of this relationship is what’s driving Fogo Island into the future. ‘We’ve been building little wooden houses here for more than 400 years. No one really noticed,’ she says. ‘The Squish Studio is a little wooden house on Fogo Island, and so far it has drawn attention from around the world.’ Audi Magazine
077
TURN OF THE
TIDE Life on Canada’s Fogo Island was in jeopardy until the remote outpost in Newfoundland was brought back to life by art, tradition and innovation
WRITER Emma Barlow PHOTOGRAPHER Finn Beales
ull of energy and with a poem never far from his lips, retired teacher, fisherman and keen storyteller Roy Dwyer leads us on a winding trail over large granite rocks. Bushes full of red partridge berries and wildflowers spring up all around us and the sea rushes in at the ragged shoreline below. ‘There aren’t many fishermen left here now,’ says Roy. ‘The old buildings and fishing boats have mostly gone.’ We reach the top of the cliff and our guide points towards a sleek, white wooden artist’s studio at the edge of the shore. It’s a futuristic design, full of razorsharp angles that play tricks with the light – a complete contrast to the green hillsides dotted with sheep, and buildings that have stood for centuries. What we’re looking at is Squish Studio – one of many new and architecturally beautiful structures on Canada’s Fogo Island. And it’s this marrying up of the
F
068
old and new that’s providing the key to preserving a way of life that has gone on for more than 400 years. One that was very nearly lost for ever. Fogo Island is located off the north-east coast of Newfoundland. Even in the 21st century, it’s an isolated place – we’ve taken a five-hour flight from London, driven five and a half hours, and hopped on a ferry to get here. It’s hard to imagine what it must have been like for those English and Irish settlers who boarded their boats in the 1700s with the dream of making Fogo Island their home (and whose accents can still be heard today). But the mixture of old and new isn’t the island’s only quirk. It’s thought that Fogo Island is one of the ‘four corners’ of the world, and there are people who claim to have seen the edge of the planet from the top of Brimstone Head on the north side of the island. There are also seven seasons here, including Pack Ice Season and >> Audi Magazine
069
Roy in Tilting, where his family have lived since the 1700s: ‘It’s different to most tourist hot spots. Other places have palm trees – we’ve got rocks and cold water’
Berry Season – a time when the landscape becomes as colourful as one of the island’s handcrafted patchwork quilts. ‘We’re approaching Berry Season now,’ says Roy, handing me some wild blueberries. ‘We just need a bit more sun to ripen everything up.’ After admiring the Squish Studio, Roy drops us a few miles west to Joe Batt’s Arm, where the impressive silhouette of the Fogo Island Inn, hugging the rocks on its giant stilts, dominates the cliffs. Built in the shape of a cross – or crossroads – the structure of this luxury hotel is another bold example of how Fogo Island is bridging the gap between the past and present. Even its wacky-looking stilts are an homage to the past, and I find myself smiling whenever I spot the same hotchpotch of supports holding up the island’s old fishing stages – the platforms where fishermen unload their catch. 070
Audi Magazine
The studios – there are four of them – and the inn are the work of the Shorefast Foundation, a registered charity that was started by Zita Cobb, a Fogo islander and businesswoman turned social entrepreneur. We meet her at the inn, in a beautiful library space that’s painted in what I soon come to appreciate as ‘Fogo Island green’. Part turquoise, part neon green, it’s a hue that’s found on absolutely everything here – from boats and window frames to knitted socks. Zita grew up on the island, but like a lot of the younger people she left to go to college and didn’t return. ‘When I did come home I could see it becoming… less,’ she says. ‘Then after the ban on cod fishing, the island became a lot less. And that was very scary for me.’ Cod is a big deal here and provided life with a rhythm that went on for centuries. Northern cod was plentiful, but this
attracted fleets from around the world, and after decades of overfishing the species was almost wiped out. In 1992 the Canadian government banned cod fishing in the North Atlantic until stocks recovered. The effect was devastating. Many Fogo islanders had no choice but to leave the place their families had lived for eight generations, and it looked like their way of life might be lost for ever. Zita’s own father left, but not before nailing the gate closed and declaring he would never be back. ‘When there’s a big flood, or a volcano, everyone rushes in to help, at least for a little while until the next crisis,’ she says. ‘But the thing about the disintegration of small places, and it’s happening all over the world, is that no one rushes in and that place just slowly disappears.’ Zita’s mission was clear: ‘I knew I wanted to create something that would >> 071
U NTAGGA BL E Fogo Island’s craft tradition stretches back centuries and the inn’s beautiful quilts and wooden furniture are made by local people 072
Audi Magazine
073
The Bridge is a retreat for writers and the only studio built inland – an homage to the inshore cabins where many of the islanders spend the icy winters
The ban on cod fishing was disastrous. Today, shrimp, lobster and crab are now the staple catch
074
grow another leg on the economy, something that would sustain the community long after I’m dead and gone. And that it would be community-owned.’ With help from her brothers, Zita arrived at the idea of bringing art to the island. ‘Art was a way to put this community in the conversation about where we are all going together. And what does it mean to be alive – to belong,’ she explains. ‘Those conversations don’t happen in business.’ In 2003 the Cobbs set up the Shorefast Foundation, with all the proceeds from Fogo Island Arts and the Fogo Island Inn belonging to the island and its population of around 2500 inhabitants. Of course, Fogo Island Inn isn’t an ordinary inn. It, like the artist studios, was designed by architect Todd Saunders who grew up in Newfoundland but visited Fogo Island as a child. Todd has said he felt his Audi Magazine
whole life had been building up to the moment he took the call from Zita. And Todd came up with a series of extraordinary buildings – buildings that manage to stay true to the architecture of the island, and yet reach out into the future. The first time I walk into the inn, I’m blown away. The wooden cladding is exactly like that of the traditional Salt Box homes found all over Newfoundland, but it’s the views that really strike you. Huge windows in the lobby and restaurant provide a panorama of the ocean, and it’s here where I see whales for the first time. A few of us huddle up close to the glass to watch the spray come up from four or five blowholes before the humpbacks sink into the depths. The food, of course, is locally sourced, and as a lover of seafood I’m in my element. After the cod fishing ban, islanders adapted by catching shrimp, lobster and
crab. Happily, cod is back on the menu, although there are strict controls on how much can be caught. There’s also local salt lamb, caribou moss and more of those delicious berries. While Fogo Island Inn is a luxury hotel, with rooms costing $1600 (CAD) per night, you won’t find a stuffy concierge in sight. There’s a kitchen table where you’re greeted by smiling local ladies who will organise your time on the island. This includes matching you up with a community host who will show you around – hosts such as Roy. Every piece of wooden furniture – the bar, dining chairs and bedside tables – is made by local people in a workshop down the road, and the island’s seamstresses and knitters are responsible for the cushions and traditional quilts on the bed. These stunning modern representations and reinterpretations of traditional >> 075
U NTAGGA BL E
Mike Dillon in his grandfather’s tool shed on Little Fogo: ‘Zita Cobb did something special. She saw beauty in the place that most of us took for granted’
Fogo design are also available to buy from the online Fogo Island shop. As well as giving the inn its authentic feel, these decisions and practices also have the benefit of providing local people with jobs. It’s all part of Zita’s mindful take on running a business – even during construction of the Inn, Zita insisted on using as much from the island as possible, or if it wasn’t available here, buying it from Newfoundland. ‘I know where every little nail in this place comes from,’ she tells me. Of course, some people were suspicious of the changes, especially the older generation. ‘When that hotel started going up they were a bit sceptical,’ says Mike Dillon, who runs boat tours for the inn. ‘But when they started to see that young people were coming home because there was work, they soon changed their tune.’ In many ways Mike is doing a similar job to Zita – albeit on a smaller scale. He takes 076
us out on his boat to Little Fogo, a series of smaller islands where his family lived before moving to Fogo Island in the 1930s. They’ve holidayed here – where the only neighbours are puffins – ever since and Mike is determined to maintain his wooden properties for future generations. Over a cup of a tea in his grandfather’s tool shed, Mike ruminates on what’s happened to the place he calls home. ‘Zita did something really special,’ he says. ‘She saw beauty in the place that most of us took for granted, and she was in a position where she could promote it and show everyone the real Fogo.’ But what of the art? On a slightly grey Thursday we make the short trip from the inn to the Museum of the Flat Earth to be enlightened by artist Kay Burns. Clutching a Flat Earth coffee that her husband roasts next door, Kay shares the evidence she has gathered that point to the Earth being
flat. It’s an enthralling journey and one told with a wink and smile. Kay moved to the island four years ago from Canada and now gets to mix with world-renowned artists who come to here to complete residencies and make use of the glorious art studios. ‘One of the things about creating or embellishing stories here is that it’s very much embedded in the culture,’ she says. ‘Newfoundlanders are storytellers, so you can kind of play with that notion and still be fundamentally drawing on truthful elements.’ It’s another compelling example of the old meeting the new. For Zita, the power of this relationship is what’s driving Fogo Island into the future. ‘We’ve been building little wooden houses here for more than 400 years. No one really noticed,’ she says. ‘The Squish Studio is a little wooden house on Fogo Island, and so far it has drawn attention from around the world.’ Audi Magazine
077
