In 1986, a fiberglass sculpture of a shark plunging headfirst into the roof of an ordinary-looking row house in the English town of Headington appeared as if out of nowhere. According to the artist who made it, John Buckley, and the owner of the home pierced by the shark, Bill Heine, the work was meant as a protest against the recent bombing of Libya, nuclear power and nuclear war, among other things.
However, art has a funny way of multiplying meanings, often above and beyond what its creators intended, and the Headington Shark is a case in point. The filmmakers behind comedy-drama Learning to Breathe Under Water, which recently premiered in Karlovy Vary (and also played the Galway Film Fleadh very near where the film was shot), jump the shark concept across the Irish Sea to make a different sort of point, perhaps about the absurdity of death.
Learning to Breathe Under Water
The Bottom Line
Swims in circles.
