REFUGIO - After Selkirk After Crusoe

A Fife Contemporary exhibition celebrating 300 years since the novel Robinson Crusoe was published.

In the early 18th century a sailor from Fife left his ship and lived alone for four years on an uninhabited Pacific island. Alexander Selkirk’s subsequent account of his experiences provided Daniel Defoe with inspiration for his novel, Robinson Crusoe. Selkirk’s island is now part of Chile; in 1966 it was renamed Isla Robinson Crusoe.

300 years after the first publication of  Robinson Crusoe, at a venue close to Selkirk’s birthplace, Lower Largo, REFUGIO explores the blurring of fact with fiction between Selkirk and Crusoe. The exhibition combines different approaches to representation: analogue and digital photographs made in Scotland and Chile; temporary works based on illustrations in an early 20th century book for children; and extracts from J M Coetzee’s 1986 novel, Foe.

Roger Palmer is an artist based in Glasgow. His work has been widely exhibited in the UK, Europe and further afield. Palmer taught at The Glasgow School of Art (1985-2004); he is Emeritus Professor of Fine Art at the University of Leeds.