Landscapes of the imagination – Walter Battiss
![](https://imbaliartbooks.org.za/wp-content/uploads/imbali_images/battiss_10_10_003_HR-600x399.jpg)
Walter Battiss (1906-1982) Fook Island (11/30), unrecorded date, silkscreen print, 45 x 64 cm.
Do landscapes have to be real? Walter Battiss, together with the artist Norman Catherine, created a whole imaginary world, which they called “Fook Island”. They created maps, stamps, money, even a language and an alphabet, recipes and food, kings and a queen, for this imaginary place. All of these were works of art, in a kind of “performance” that continued over years. Battiss even created a Fookian passport and driver’s licence (which, remarkably, were actually accepted on his travels to America, Germany, Britain and Australia; his Fookian passport contains official stamps from all those countries).
Look at this image. It is a screenprint by Walter Battiss, called Fook Island. What can you learn about this strange foreign (imaginary) place from looking at this picture?
Landscapes of the imagination – Walter Battiss
![](https://imbaliartbooks.org.za/wp-content/themes/dynamik-gen/images/content-filler.png)