SWELL
China marker on drafting film, 36” x 24,” June 2014
Svalbard, Norway

Swell is a site-specific series of six prints created in the fjords of Svalbard, Norway, documenting the textured surfaces of high-Arctic icebergs. Produced during a residency with the Arctic Circle Program—a three-week sailing expedition that brings artists and scientists within 1,300 km of the North Pole—this work indexically captures the faceted surfaces of ancient glacier ice known as growlers.

Through detailed impressions of water-worn patterns and inscribed brine channels, Swell employs the direct and intimate process of frottage (rubbing). Using simple, portable materials—china marker and drafting film—these prints chronicle the rapid transformation of ice from solid to liquid.

The project also reflects on the historical role of the artist as traveller, observer, and documenter of remote landscapes.

Swell has been exhibited at Space Gallery in Portland, Maine, and at the Free Will North Church Project Space at the Tides Institute & Museum of Art in Eastport, Maine.

Thanks to

Arts Nova Scotia for their generous support of this work
Brittany Ransom and fellow Arctic Circle Program participants
Shoshannah White (https://www.shoshannahwhite.com) for the exhibition photographs of Black Ice at Space Gallery in Portland, Maine