In 2015, artist Helen Glazer spent seven weeks exploring the Antarctic wilderness with her camera, studying ice formations and the complex interactions between wind, water and sun that sculpt the region’s frozen landscape. Her resulting exhibition of photographs and sculpture, entitled “Walking in Antarctica,” is now on view at Goucher College’s Rosenberg Gallery through Dec. 18.Glazer’s goal was both to document the impact of natural processes on the arctic and investigate the visual evidence of climate change on the continent. “Walking in Antarctica” includes 3D scans of glaciers, other-worldly views of frozen lakes, massive glaciers and sea ice.
There are views into a magnificent frozen ice cave, a set of windswept mountains and a colony of penguins. The aesthetic is both haunting and memorizing, beautiful in the way of science fiction.
While Glazer is trained as an artist, she has spent her career studying geology and the earth sciences for various projects, and is passionate about translating to her audience the very real concerns surrounding climate change.
Asked what she hopes her work will say about global warming, Glazer offered a memorable quote from sustainability advocate Lance Hosey.
“When we treasure something, we’re less prone to kill it, so desire fuels preservation…Aesthetic attraction is not a superficial concern — it’s an environmental imperative. Beauty could save the planet.”
Glazer sees her own role, as artist, to present her viewers with a visual case for what natural wonders exist, and to put importance on the fact that they are fleeting without policy change. The remote, secluded, landscape is now understood as profoundly connected to sustaining human life on earth, Glazer said.
She hopes her audiences come away with “an understanding that something precious will be lost if we do not confront the reality of climate change and demand that our government and industry make changes to insure a sustainable future.”
The artist, a former gallery director at Goucher College, spent time researching areas of Antarctica well before her trip, and conducted interviews with scientists at various sites while documenting their work and surroundings.
Helen Glazer will talk about her work at an artist’s reception in the gallery on Tuesday, Nov. 14, from 6-8 p.m. An audio tour of the show is available online for anyone with a smartphone. Click here for more information.
