Cigua Tales

Diana Policarpo gives presence to the Ocean and the stories it holds through research that mutates in many ways.  Taking her point of departure from a research trip to the Portuguese-administered Ilhas Selvagens (Savage Islands) in the North Atlantic Ocean, Policarpo created a case study of mapping colonial histories through tracking natural biodiversity. Small as they are, these islands hold symbolic and also ecological importance. What might seem tiny and remote to humans is not so for algae, birds, fishes, and rocks that speak of the geological formation of a continent and the currents that determine the course of the seasons and the survival of many species. 

The title Cigua Tales refers to poisoning that occurs after eating fish contaminated with accumulated ciguatoxins. This results from the fish feeding on toxic macroalgae containing Gambierdiscus. Outbreaks of ciguatera are well documented in the Savage Islands area. Yet, the exact cause of the intermittent increase in the release of toxins resulting in poisonings up the food chain remains unknown. However, nuclear testing has been suggested as one possible cause. It is an example of various anthropogenic damage caused by humans treating the world as their property.