In September 2021 a whale was washed up at the end of Stöðvarfjörður fjord. I completed seven one-month art residencies in Iceland, and this was the fourth. Although I had previously found small pieces of whale bone on that beach, and later on Achill Island on Ireland’s west coast, this was the only time I have ever seen a dead whale close up. In the course of the following week the carcass was washed back out to sea by the tides.

The collagraph is a composite image of the ancient volcanic mountains lining the fjord, the dead whale, the huge jawbones dominating Whitby’s North Cliff, and flotsam and jetsam.

The whale is endangered not only by hunters, but also by the tonnes of debris deposited in the oceans, represented here by the accumulations of netting and ropes.