La Casa Isla is an intricate layered work of documentary and fiction by artist
Anne Golaz. It is informed by time spent on the island off the coast of Chile
that was the inspiration for the place Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked, which
Golaz visited with Stéphane Goël during the production of his 2018 documentary
film Insulaire. In this immersive artist’s book, the island is explored as a
transitory space of hope and refuge and conversely of isolation and
imprisonment. An evocative sequence of image and text places these ideas in
contrast as well as resonance. In passages of prose and poetry, the island is
laden with promises of solace and transformation, as Golaz’s narrator considers
distance, memory, and mortality. Photographs, watercolour illustrations, and
pages from the artist’s sketchbook punctuate the narrative, creating a textured
and equivocal visual language. Beginning from close, sensory study of a
particular place, La Casa Isla grows to form a transcendent meditation on exile
and grief, the influence of cinema, and the nature and purpose of art and
narrative.
