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< < < STUDIO
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ANTARCTICA
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INTERVIEWS, JOURNAL ARTICLES & NOTEBOOK JOTTINGS
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"In this place, the noise and visual drama of a katabatic wind is an invitation to step outside. Standing in its forcefield, I experience an entirely different awareness of my body in space, and possibly even in time. With almost zero visibility and all familiar points of reference no longer within grasp, an almost weightless feeling ensues. We’re like feathers or flotsam in this place. This becomes even more apparent when we see and experience the wind at work, displaying all the intention, zeal and passion of a sculptor mid-process."
Dry Valleys Notebook | CB, 2008 |
BRINGING ART AND SCIENCE TOGETHER | Eye Contact Magazine (July 2010)
"In response to the ecological disaster that has followed the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, Claire Beynon presents oil and pencil works on paper that excerpt texts such as Margaret Atwood’s poem Elegy for the Giant Tortoises (1968) and W.B. Yeats’ The Second Coming (1919), as well as evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis’ lyrical book ‘What is Life?’ (2000). By presenting texts so commonly concerned with the fragility and persistence (or not) of ecological systems, Beynon seems to recognise language - with its capacity for creative expression and communication - as the basis of both art and science. Certainly, the realm of figurative language, and metaphor specifically, has in my mind been convincingly established as essential to science by philosopher Zradkov Radman who explains how it is central to the description of scientific concepts and hypotheses in his ‘Metaphors: Figures of the Mind’ (1997). Beynon presents gentle yet poignant works that pose poetry as a form of personal protest in the face of a disaster the size and impact of which is otherwise beyond our grasp."
Jodi Dalgleish
"In response to the ecological disaster that has followed the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, Claire Beynon presents oil and pencil works on paper that excerpt texts such as Margaret Atwood’s poem Elegy for the Giant Tortoises (1968) and W.B. Yeats’ The Second Coming (1919), as well as evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis’ lyrical book ‘What is Life?’ (2000). By presenting texts so commonly concerned with the fragility and persistence (or not) of ecological systems, Beynon seems to recognise language - with its capacity for creative expression and communication - as the basis of both art and science. Certainly, the realm of figurative language, and metaphor specifically, has in my mind been convincingly established as essential to science by philosopher Zradkov Radman who explains how it is central to the description of scientific concepts and hypotheses in his ‘Metaphors: Figures of the Mind’ (1997). Beynon presents gentle yet poignant works that pose poetry as a form of personal protest in the face of a disaster the size and impact of which is otherwise beyond our grasp."
Jodi Dalgleish
A VAST SCALE: EVOCATIONS OF ANTARCTICA
Collaborative research paper | RUPERT SUMMERSON (Australia) & CLAIRE BEYNON (New Zealand) 2011 | Available in hard copy and pdf format from ANU PRESS, Canberra 2015 [Pages 205 - 221]
Collaborative research paper | RUPERT SUMMERSON (Australia) & CLAIRE BEYNON (New Zealand) 2011 | Available in hard copy and pdf format from ANU PRESS, Canberra 2015 [Pages 205 - 221]
| antarctic_music_sound_cultural_connections.pdf |
NATURE'S LITTLE MASONS
JUNCTURES: The Journal for Thematic Dialogue [Issue 13 | Unseen] | Dec. 2010
JUNCTURES: The Journal for Thematic Dialogue [Issue 13 | Unseen] | Dec. 2010
| junctures_natures_little_masons.pdf |
SNAP FROZEN
Journal entries from Explorers Cove, Antarctica | October - December 2008
Journal entries from Explorers Cove, Antarctica | October - December 2008
| snap_frozen_blog_notes_icelines.pdf |
ARTIST-POET'S ANTARCTIC CONTRIBUTION REWARDED
Antarctica Service Medals are presented in recognition of 'valuable contributions to exploration and scientific achievement' under the United States Antarctic Programme | Otago Daily Times
Antarctica Service Medals are presented in recognition of 'valuable contributions to exploration and scientific achievement' under the United States Antarctic Programme | Otago Daily Times
SPOTLIGHT
Claire Beynon talks about her travels with polar scientists to investigate the marine life of the Antarctic | Article by ELSIE PERCIVAL
Claire Beynon talks about her travels with polar scientists to investigate the marine life of the Antarctic | Article by ELSIE PERCIVAL
HIDDEN DEPTHS | POETRY FOR SCIENCE
Embark on a lyrical under-ice voyage in the company of a science diver, a pteropod, a flotilla of silver and white bamboo boats and an ancient giant of the uni-cellular world - tree foraminiferan, Notodendrodes Antarctikos. Painterly and metaphorical in its approach, this short film addresses a number of scientific and metaphysical themes in a novel and thought-provoking way.
Hidden Depths - Poetry for Science was first shown at the INTERNATIONAL POLAR YEAR OSLO SCIENCE CONFERENCE | 8-12 June 2010 | Oslo, Norway
Embark on a lyrical under-ice voyage in the company of a science diver, a pteropod, a flotilla of silver and white bamboo boats and an ancient giant of the uni-cellular world - tree foraminiferan, Notodendrodes Antarctikos. Painterly and metaphorical in its approach, this short film addresses a number of scientific and metaphysical themes in a novel and thought-provoking way.
Hidden Depths - Poetry for Science was first shown at the INTERNATIONAL POLAR YEAR OSLO SCIENCE CONFERENCE | 8-12 June 2010 | Oslo, Norway
WHERE THERE IS ICE, THERE IS MUSIC
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Rare sounds abound in these places
where wind is dressed in white. It roars and twists and winds its way into sea and lungs and ice. |
KATABATIKOS
FINDING THE VERTICALROUTE MARKING | The company of flagsIn a predominantly horizontal environment, people and flags are vertical accents articulating an otherwise spare space. Their visual effect is not unlike that of punctuation marks on a white page. Flags in Antarctica hold a range of meanings. They are placed solo to mark places of significance, in pairs to denote danger, in linear sequences to delineate a safe passage across the ice, in population groups like noble sentinels placed to keep watch… They capture the weather, their progressively tattered flies acting as a kind of unintentional documentation of wind and sun exposure, the mysteries and power of an aggressive and changing climate, human endeavour in a hostile landscape. There's something at once statuesque, alien and comforting about them.
Metaphorically speaking, flags also suggest links in time and space; they lead us in the direction of change and highlight the subtle beauty that surrounds us. I used ephemeral materials in my Sentinel Flag installation (silk, perspex, vylene, perforations) so as to emphasise the fragility and pristine beauty of the Antarctic environment. Explorers Cove is designated a particularly high-conservation area, being the only place in the world where certain species of foraminifera are found. Foraminifera are uni-cellular aquatic organisms dating back six hundred and fifty million years. Surprisingly sophisticated when it comes to their survival skills and building methods, they are foundations of our evolutionary pyramid. The names and GPS coordinates of the research sites where we collected foramanifera samples are etched into the ‘footprints’ of the flags as a way of recording their significance. They are placed in a sequence that tracks designated research sites along the Dry Valleys coastline. STORIES ICE TELLSENCOUNTERS ON THE ICE | A Dry Valleys Notebook
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ArtScience Collaboration with Albany-based polar biologist Samuel Bowser | Tang Museum, Skidmore, USA
Permanently installed in the Wadsworth Research Centre, Albany New York |
InterfaCE was a collaboratively conceived installation and multi-media presentation exploring the relationships between art and science, intuition and knowledge, theory and the imagination.
The motivating impulse for InterfaCE was inter-disciplinary, intercontinental exchange with a specific focus on increasing the public's understanding of the importance of Antarctica in the global system. References to major international research projects such as ANDRILL and, too, pressing environmental concerns such as the greenhouse effect and global climate change are implicit in this work.
‘Interface’ is a fusion of ‘inter’ meaning ‘between’ and ‘facio,’ ‘to make’ or ‘to do.’ In everyday language, it means ‘to bring into relationship.’ The word 'ice' is embedded within ‘InterfaCE’, a title chosen both for its relevance to Antarctica and because our project highlights the parallels between image-making and scientific processes. In each of these disciplines, understanding is often not immediate: patience and attention are required in order to bring content and understanding into view. In this – and in many other respects - science and art are kindred disciplines, each being layered explorations of information and meaning.
The motivating impulse for InterfaCE was inter-disciplinary, intercontinental exchange with a specific focus on increasing the public's understanding of the importance of Antarctica in the global system. References to major international research projects such as ANDRILL and, too, pressing environmental concerns such as the greenhouse effect and global climate change are implicit in this work.
‘Interface’ is a fusion of ‘inter’ meaning ‘between’ and ‘facio,’ ‘to make’ or ‘to do.’ In everyday language, it means ‘to bring into relationship.’ The word 'ice' is embedded within ‘InterfaCE’, a title chosen both for its relevance to Antarctica and because our project highlights the parallels between image-making and scientific processes. In each of these disciplines, understanding is often not immediate: patience and attention are required in order to bring content and understanding into view. In this – and in many other respects - science and art are kindred disciplines, each being layered explorations of information and meaning.
SHORT FILMS | Poetry for Science
GLOBAL SNAPSHOT | S 77° 34.577’ E 163° 31.687’ | 1.00AM, Explorers Cove, Antarctica
Flash Fiction for ANOTHER Magazine's 'A Global Snapshot in Words' project on 28 November 2008
Flash Fiction for ANOTHER Magazine's 'A Global Snapshot in Words' project on 28 November 2008