Bonavista Biennale 2025: String Games, Newfoundland
By Allison Graves
Bonavista Biennale signage for Site 1, Keels Cove (photo: Brian Ricks; courtesy of Bonavista Biennale)
I stand in Pat Murphy’s Meadow, looking over the town of King’s Cove, and I feel happy. It was the first cold day after a Newfoundland heat wave. My friend is walking around Marianne Nicolson’s installation, eating blueberries she’s picked from a nearby bush. Nicolson’s piece extends about fifty feet and greets anyone who had plans to hike the King’s Cove Lighthouse Trail. This is precisely what’s most important about the Bonavista Biennale—the integration of art and place, and the capacity for outport landscapes to accompany art that may stop people in their tracks and encourage them to look a little bit longer. The titular theme of this year’s Biennale is String Games—one of the oldest forms of play and handcraft, invented by various cultures around the world. This year’s Biennale is the first to have welcomed artists from multiple international locations, deepening the exhibition’s capacity to tell stories we may not already know.
Marianne Nicolson, From a Distance, 2025, land-based installation with painted wood rounds, Pat Murphy’s Meadow, King’s Cove (photo: Brian Ricks; courtesy of Bonavista Biennale)
By encountering contemporary art alongside the complex environments of the Bonavista Peninsula, new contexts can emerge. The Biennale was conceived in 2015 for tangible reasons: to help outport fishing communities across Newfoundland recover from the devastating impacts of the 1992 Cod Moratorium. I knew from the palpable buzz in town that last week’s opening weekend would bring a flock of friends to the bay, and everyone would move from community to community, frantically running into each other at each stop.
Ethan Murphy, Rock Island Convenience, 2023, photograph, Ramea, NL (courtesy of the artist)
Also in the King’s Cove at the Community Hall is an exhibition of photos from Inuuteq Storch and Ethan Murphy. Murphy, a friend of mine from St. John’s, has always been interested in depicting scenes from everyday life in Newfoundland and Labrador. He is always on the move, tossing himself into different local communities like a dirty shirt. His work often exists at the intersection of the playful and the quotidian. In these everyday scenes, there’s a sparkle. One large photo is of a table set up with coffee and tea at what appears to be a legion space, and there’s an inflated blue balloon in the corner. Another is of a man out with his dog, loading up the trunk of his red Yaris with turnips. A third is an image of four boys out playing baseball while wearing suits.
Inuuteq Storch, work from the Necromancer series, 2023, digital prints (courtesy of the artist and Wilson Saplana Gallery, Copenhagen)
Storch lives and works in Greenland, and a lot of his photos in this exhibition showcase the icy terrain there. Because they are all black and white, a coldness seeps into the experience of viewing them. A picture of a children’s play set looks almost abandoned in its loneliness. On his website, Storch clarifies that this collection, titled Necromancer, is meant to convey a post-apocalyptic feeling inspired by the pandemic.
Artist Michael Massie discusses his work “pop” art in suspension, 2025, with a visitor at The Factory, Port Union (photo: Brian Ricks; courtesy of Bonavista Biennale)
In Port Union, the work of Michael Massie can be seen at The Factory. A huge fish made out of flat and manipulated Pepsi cans greets you when you walk in, and just behind it is a replica of Massie’s grandmother’s front door covered with big bugs that Massie made out of metal. Each bug, large and threatening hangs just beyond the colourful screen door. Down the road at Union House Arts, we ran into a bunch of our friends admiring the work of Maureen Gruben, Andrea Flowers, Nellie Winters and Sarah Baikie. The meticulous sewing, embroidery and beadwork on mittens and sealskin boots makes me emotional as I think about women, work, and crafts.
That night, at the public opening party at Port Rexton Brewery, there’s a line out the door to buy a beer. In a room full of people I know from St. John’s, I feel a kinship. I think about String Games and play and art bringing us all out around the bay to be together. I think about how futurity lies in telling stories. I think I’m having fun.
Bonavista Biennale 2025: String Games continues until September 14.
Bonavista Biennale: bonavistabiennale.com
Contact the Executive Director for information about exhibit accessibility.
Allison Graves is a writer and PhD candidate from St. John’s, Newfoundland. Her book Soft Serve was published in 2023.