Permafrost, climate change and hope
A visual art project about climate change, but also about hope. Interrupted by the pandemic, the data collection phase is complete. Using this data, the work on the exhibition is underway.
In February at -34˙C, I collected permafrost (ethically) from Tuktoyuktuk, NWT, on the edge of the arctic Ocean, with local residents James and Lucky Pokiak. I hauled it down to Whitehorse planning to melt it in the courtyard of the McBride Museum. When it closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I was forced to relocate the permafrost to our front yard.
I documented the melt by time-lapse video, and melted a few small pieces under a controlled environment. The original permafrost was measured and weighed (485 lbs.). I collected the remaining solid matter after the melt, which amounts to a small handful. (Images from this process can be found below).
Re: Climate Change
To illustrate how little soil is under many communities in the circumpolar world, (whole communities will slump into the ocean as the Arctic warms), I plan to develop 3-D sculptural representations of the permafrost (100% size) for display with the small pile of solid matter melted out of the permafrost, and the time lapse video. As can be seen in the community freezer 40 feet under Tuktoyuktuk, the community sits on permafrost composed of predominantly ice.
Re: Hope
After an artist residency in Svalbard at the 80th Parallel, I came back home with climate change depression. It was debilitating. Inflicting youth with this dis-ease was also weighing heavy on my mind. My path out of the depression was via the Japanese philosophy of golden repair, often symbolized by a broken teacup repaired with gold in the cracks. I concluded:
Climate change is here and happening, our planet is broken. It is now time to embrace the brokenness, slow further decline, and create something new and beautiful from that place.
This conclusion has begun to manifest itself in my work in the form of golden cracks.
To illustrate a broken planet and golden repair, I initiated a project to lay golden material (temporarily) in wild, natural landscapes and photograph them. An example can be seen in the section, “Other Projects” under “Golden Repair for Our Planet, Sept. 2019”
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This work is currently evolving in new and old directions, which will be formulated into an exhibition. The work will include a collaborative aspect with award winning writer/poet, Joanna Lilley, who visited the permafrost during the melt for creative inspiration.
Melting a small piece of permafrost in a controlled environment:
Images of the resulting residue from melting three small pieces of permafrost in a controlled environment:
Media Coverage: Sneak Peek, Galleries West May 26, 2020
Leslie Leong Arts 