Annique Goldenberg

Evoking the Arctic environment, this installation of floor drawing, sound, light, temperature and digital image invites the viewer to traverse the room as they experience a rendition of the polar landscape. The installation is the realisation of a 2017 Arctic Circle Residency in Svalbard using field data gathered from the trip. 

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A representation of the Arctic ice-cap at the time of the residency has been drawn onto the floor using recycled bedsheets, pulped into cotton fibre.  An ultra-violet bulb suspended above the wet drawing casts a deep blue glow, highlighting the textures and patterns of the 'ice-flow'. On the wall behind, a large-scale 6 panel digital print of a Svalbard glacier, overlaid with an enlarged ink drawing using English water, waits dimly in the blue glow until thrown into sharp relief for 5 seconds every minute. An ambient soundtrack of ice, ocean, human and machine recordings from the Arctic plays in the background.

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A pattern hovering in the landscape is a digitised version of an ancient pathogen released from melting Arctic permafrost.

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To close the installation, the paper pulp floor drawing is reanimated with water and slowly compressed into a single, reduced form in the centre of the room. The stained pulp will be dried into an artist book form, holding a record of the exhibition in its materiality.