Journals

Antarctica 2002

INDEX

42 Days - An Antarctic journey

42 x A4 digital prints combine drawings made during an Antarctic expedition and sound forms of words that relate to the experience.

 

Day 01 /26.1.02 / 43s 137e
separation

Streamers rip

as we break away from port

and I see Hobart backlit

by dark cloud and lightening.

 

 

Day 02 /27.1.02 / 46s 139e
vocabulary

How can I begin to describe

the sights and sounds

of this

experience?

 

 

Day 03 /28.01.02 / 48s 134e
sea

As the seas rise

I remember a sea journey

with my father

when I was five.

 

 

Day 4 /29.01.02 / 50s 128e
whitecap

I scribble lines

to descibe the whitecaps

of the stormy sea:

watery calligraphy.

 

 

Day 05 /30.01.02 / 52s 123e
chart

With notebook on swaying knees

I plot a framework

for writing

this story.

 

 

Day 06 /31.01.02 / 51s 120e
mark

Pools of ink and water

on paper

mark our motion

through the storm.

 

 

Day 07 /01.02.02 / 53s 117e
sound

Water rushing through

the ship's stabilizers

loudly sounds, and biscuits

scatter on the bridge floor.

 

 

Day 08 /02.02.02 / 56s 112e
berg

Nothing could have prepared me

for the strangeness

of the first iceberg,

only just visible through night and mist.

 

 

Day 09 /03.02.02 / 60s 107e
change

The south magnetic pole

wanders over time.

Everything shifts

around me.

 

 

Day 10 /04.02.02 / 62s 99e
time

As we

move south,

the days

lengthen.

 

 

Day 11 /05.02.02 / 63s 88e
sapphire

I wake

to the blue

of early morning

ice.

 

 

Day 12 /06.02.02 / 65s 80e
moonrise

A luminous form

emerges

from the packice:

a new moon rising.

 

 

Day 13 /07.02.02 / 69s 75e
arc

A thin

yellow glow

arcs over

this land of ice.

 

 

Day 14 /08.02.02 / 68s 71e
light

The light here is long

and subtle

and slow

and wide.

 

 

Day 15 /09.02.02 / 68s 71e
spectrum

Sea life sings

both above

and below

our range of hearing.

 

 

Day 16 /10.02.02 / 68s 71e
animation

Layers of ice,

water,

and wind,

pattern my view.

 

 

Day 17 /11.02.02 / 68s 70e
fragment

Looking through

an icy porthole,

I capture fragments

of new forming ice.

 

 

Day 18/12.02.02 / 68s 71e
life

Penguins

unexpectedly appear

through cracks

in the pack ice.

 

 

Day 19 /13.02.02 / 69s 74e
zoo

Transluscent

zooplanktons

are drawn

through a microscope.

 

 

Day 20 /14.02.02 / 69s 75e
rock

Finally

I tread

the rock

of Antarctica.

 

 

Day 21 /15.02.02 / 69s 75e
silence

Now

I move

in a place

that is still...

 

 

Day 22 /16.02.02 / 69s 75e
remote

in a land

of profound

isolation

...

 

 

Day 23 /17.02.02 / 69s 75e
silence

where elephant seals

impress their forms,

composing landscapes

of ice and excrement.

 

 

Day 24 /18.02.02 / 69s 75e
winter

The first night sky of winter

is scanned,

searching for spectrums beyond

our atmosphere and perception.

 

 

Day 25 /19.02.02 / 69s 75e
virga

Virga

snow

hovers above

but does not reach the ground.

 

 

Day 26 /20.02.02 / 69s 75e
ventifact

The force

of wind

carves

Antarctic rock.

 

 

Day 27 /21.02.02 / 69s 75e
ice

Ice

is sculpted

by air

and sea.

 

 

Day 28 /22.02.02 / 88s 74e
lens

Lenticular

cloud

reflects

a dark patch of sea.

 

 

Day 29 /23.02.02 / 65s 68e
scale

Pancake ice confounds

my sense of scale:

it is vast

or minuscule.

 

 

Day 30 /24.02.02 / 66s 62e
solitude

I sense only moments

of connection with this world

so indifferent

to human existence.

 

 

Day 31 /25.02.02 / 66s 62e
katabatic

Ferocious winds

press down from the plateau to Mawson,

one of the windiest places

on earth.

 

 

Day 32 /26.02.02 / 65s 70e
flight

We are skimming

on a membrane of the earth,

with birds windswept above

and zooplankton seaborne below.

 

 

Day 33 /27.02.02 / 63s 75e
return

From the other world a message arrives;

a friend has died.

Clocks are advanced

and time seems to move at another pace,

 

 

Day 34 /28.02.02 / 60s 85e
speed

...and

another storm

drives us home

...

 

 

Day 35 /01.03.02 / 58s 94e
sheets

The landscape

moves me,

and I slide through the swell

on slippery sheets.

 

 

Day 36 /02.03.02 / 55s 103e
snow

Snow

falls randomly

through gusts

of wind.

 

 

Day 37 /03.03.02 / 52s 113e
specimen

I capture

some evidence of experience

Antarctic:

hues and lines.

 

 

Day 38 /04.03.02 / 50s 123e
rainbow

I dream

the colours

of Antarctica

...

 

 

Day 39 /05.03.02 / 48s 132e
aurora

...and with expeditioners

from around the world,

we wonder at the subtlety

of an aurora.

 

 

Day 40 /06.03.02 / 45s 141e
chanelling

Then,

through warming air,

thoughts of home

arise.

 

 

Day 41 /07.03.02 / 43s 147e
land

Can this be home?

A dark and misty shape

emerges,

remote and unremembered.

 

 

Day 42 /08.03.02 / 43s 147e
green

A cypress tree

drifts past me

like an iceberg

on a Hobart road.

 

 

 

42 days
42 x A4 digital prints on paper

These images integrate some of the drawings made on location during a 42 day scientific expedition to Davis and Mawson, with sound forms of my speaking voice, and track data of dates, times and positions. The captions are drawn from the animated film of the same title (2003).

See:4D2003

Prints are available in sets or individually. Select 'Contact'.