Day 31; February 22, 2009; Southern Ocean, Antarctic Circle Average Daily Temperature: 33.88˚ F Average Daily Wind Speed: 10.82 mph Feels Like: 17.65˚ F One doesn’t forget the first glimpse of an albatross. With wingspans up to ten feet, they are stunning in flight—ever graceful in the thick ocean wind. Albatross are known for their gliding, and hardly need flap their wings. By using the updraft of the wind off the ocean’s surface and the shape of their long elegant wings they can glide endlessly. I was quite fortunate to see five species today: the majestic wandering albatross, the sooty albatross, the light-mantled sooty albatross, the black-browed albatross and the…read more »
Day 30; February 21, 2009; Penguin Bukta, Fimbul Ice Shelf, Southern Ocean, Antarctica Average Daily Temperature: 24.53˚ F Average Daily Wind Speed: 14.77 mph Feels Like: 2.38˚ F This morning I awoke to find that the sea had literally begun to freeze. All around the ship, and as far as I could see, the surface of the ocean was covered in small discs of solid ice. Though the equinox is still a month away, which definitively marks the change of seasons, one can already see the signs of the quickly approaching winter. Watching the Southern Ocean freeze before my eyes was an awesome sight—completely profound, if not seemingly impossible. The…read more »
Day 25; February 16, 2009; Vesleskaervet, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica Average Daily Temperature: Average Daily Wind Speed: Feels Like: The last three days were entirely given over to the completion of the ITASC expedition, and all of our work in the field. After shooting the interior photographs of ICEPAC for the exhibition catalogue, and finishing each of our individual art projects, we began the complete removal of the mobile base—an exhaustive experience that took 30 consecutive hours of hard manual labor in the freezing cold. It was a significant moment, as it marked the successful end of ITASC’s four-year undertaking. It also held the distinct poignancy, that subtle sorrow, that comes…read more »
Day 21; February 12, 2009; Vesleskaervet, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica Average Daily Temperature: Average Daily Wind Speed: Feels Like: Tonight would be my last night sleeping in ICEPAC on this trip. The wind had picked up, and while ICEPAC remained calm and firmly poised against the 20+ knot winds, it was not impervious to the cold air. Deeply inside two sleeping bags, I was still tensely chilled in the biting temperature. There are few things quite as humbling and centering like sleeping in a tent in Antarctica. Out in these harsh elements, one is called to be completely present with the force of this icy, windy continent—one must stay mindful, or…read more »
Day 20; February 11, 2009; Vesleskaervet, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica Average Daily Temperature: Average Daily Wind Speed: Feels Like: Several days before I left Marfa to start my journey here to Antarctica my good friend Steve Holzer and I found ourselves in a conversation about sundials. I had remarked that the sundial up at the McDonald Observatory was, ironically, inaccurate for most of the year, as it didn’t account for daylight savings time. Steve, a true renaissance man, has spent a lot of time between the worlds of art and science and is, himself, both artist and inventor. Steve, it turned out, had designed a sundial back in 1982 which…read more »
Day 19; February 10, 2009; Vesleskaervet, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica Average Daily Temperature: Average Daily Wind Speed: Feels Like: I have been awake now for over thirty hours, having just completed my light recording piece. As exhausted as I am, I deeply enjoy the space that I traverse during these long periods of documenting light. Watching, diligently, the subtle shifts in color and intensity—I am ever entranced by the grace of natural phenomena. In the late afternoon, the feeder flight arrived to take Alfons to NOVO, where he will catch his flight back to Cape Town. We all went down to send him off, waving goodbye as he boarded the…read more »
Day 18; February 9, 2009; Vesleskaervet, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica Average Daily Temperature: 9.86˚ F Average Daily Wind Speed: 18.12 mph Feels Like: -17.32˚ F Today was quiet, and rather wonderfully subdued. I spent a good deal of the afternoon gazing out the window of my studio, meditating on the changing luminosity across the horizon to the south. The mountains appeared and disappeared behind think low clouds, and it was snowing heavily in the distance, leaving the farthest mountains obscured completely in gray opacity. As the sun aligned itself on the horizon, there was another intense sun pillar. Rising like a flame above the rocks on the edge of our…read more »
Day 17; February 8, 2009; Vesleskaervet, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica Average Daily Temperature: 13.64˚ F Average Daily Wind Speed: 18.12 mph Feels Like: -13.54˚ F This morning I awoke quite early to find that the cold had seeped into my bones overnight. Just before midnight last night I had walked down to ICEPAC, intent on sleeping the night in our field camp. The sun was below the horizon, but as I ambled across the snow to our field camp, there was still enough light to guide my way. The night was clear, and the deep evening colors had seeped into the ice—everything was indigo and pink, and the softness of…read more »
Day 16; February 7, 2009; Vesleskaervet, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica Average Daily Temperature: 17.78˚ F Average Daily Wind Speed: 13.42 mph Feels Like: -2.35˚ F A colour is never merely a colour, but the colour of a certain object… -Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception Here in Antarctica there is snow and ice virtually everywhere, a fact that may at first seem elementary but upon deeper reflection is infinitely complex. The impressive quantity of these natural crystalline elements extends as much vertically as they do horizontally, permeating the air and cloaking the land. The depth of the ice beneath my feet approaches 30 feet, with the thickest ice on the continent…read more »
Day 15; February 6, 2009; Vesleskaervet, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica Average Daily Temperature: 18.14˚ F Average Daily Wind Speed: 11.63 mph Feels Like: 0.69˚ F It was half an hour before lunch when I finally awoke. On my way to the dinning room to find some caffeine, my stomach clearly announcing it was ready for a meal, I ran into the helicopter pilots of Titan 1, Neall Ellis and his son and co-pilot, Kevin Ellis. Wishing me a good afternoon, they told me that we would be flying to Grunehogna in 30 minutes and to gather my things. With my first cup of coffee sloshing over the rim of my…read more »
