‘Snow Shadows’

Acrylic on Watercolour Paper,

‘CORES’ (2022)

Cyanotype on Watercolour Paper

Snow layers season by season: each layer compressed over time into ice. Trapped within this icy realm lies a precious archive revealing insights into Earth’s paleoclimate and environmental history. Bubbles of gas found in ice provide us with records of atmospheric conditions stretching back hundreds of thousands of years. Frozen material from living creatures and plants, spores, and ancient bacterial and viral communities speak of life in earlier times. Centuries of dust, sand, pollen, and ash from volcanic eruptions provide evidence of past natural disasters. Numerous man-made pollutants make their presence known in the ice record including lead emissions from medieval times, deadly PCBs from the last century, and even plutonium, the unwelcome by-product of nuclear testing. Cores of ice drilled from more than three kilometres below the Earth’s surface, also mark ancient economic activity, war, solar storms, and even the plague.

 Melt asks the question: “If ice melts, what happens to what is frozen inside it?”

Rising sea levels are only part of the story…

Ice Photography

In 2019, I read an article by Greenpeace and was shocked to learn that microplastics had been discovered in the heart of Antarctica. I wanted to know more so began researching the extent of the ‘rubbish problem’ in our polar areas.. It was worse than I could ever have imagined. Once considered pristine and untouched, the world’s polar regions now bear the burden of human waste. Microplastics, industrial debris, and discarded materials have been found frozen in the ice sheets of both the Arctic and Antarctic. Carried over vast distances by ocean currents and winds, these accumulations not only disrupt fragile ecosystems but also serve as stark reminders of the global reach of pollution.

In response to my research, I created an experimental ice installation using rubbish I had collected from St. Kilda Beach, and froze it into an ice brick which slowly melted over time. This was followed by experimental photography using my own household rubbish encased in ice. I soon learnt that ice tends to obscure the waste within, creating unsettling contrasts between the beauty of the surface and the ugliness hidden beneath.