Filmed on location in the Atlantic Ocean aboard a research vessel, Daggertooth documents the mechanics, labour and materiality of contemporary fishing practices, including those taking place in scientific research. The video follows the intricate operations of a night fishing expedition which took place in the mesopelagic zone, also known as the twilight zone: a dark layer of water that stretches around the globe. Tracing how scientific knowledges are formed around these lives, Daggertooth lingers with the (im)mobilities of fish bodies and temporalities of violence as these creatures are caught up in global systems. Amid longstanding ocean protection efforts and changing international frameworks such as the Treaty of the High Seas adopted by the UN in 2023, the work considers the ocean as a space that remains fraught with widescale trawling practices, marine ecosystem damage and global depletion of fish populations, and questions patterns that continue to instrumentalise nonhuman lives.

Kindly supported by Kildare County Council, the Arts Council of Ireland, the Marine Institute of Ireland and ATU Galway.

Daggertooth 4K Video, audio Duration: 10 minutes 2023