Naked geology, dazzling light… my journey into the Arctic
Original article published in The Guardian, The Observer, by Rowan Moore As Britain faced a heatwave, the Observer’s architecture critic found himself between Norway and the north pole, exploring icy Svalbard on an epic trip for artists and writers. One of The Arctic Circle residency team on Svalbard last month. Photograph: Leslie Leong In a tragicomic photograph to be found on the internet, a hydrogen balloon lies sideways on the sea ice, somewhere north of Svalbard. Still inflated, it clings to its spherical dignity, while the ropes that connect it to its upended basket describe…
Above the Ice
Original article published in The Paris Review, by Colin Dickey Grief and Adventure on the Path to the North Pole.For two weeks in the summer of 2013, I traveled around the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard as part of The Arctic Circle Residency, proceeding up the west coast of the main island, Spitsbergen, and making landfall at tiny settlements and untrammeled beaches at the edge of the known world. At one point, our course took us into a small fjord where we sailed past an abandoned mining town called Blomstrandhalvoya; a research station, Ny-Ålesund, on the opposite shore; and, farther…
Artists in the Arctic
Original article published in The New York Times: Dot Earth, by David Rothenberg October 14th, sailing toward Magdalena Fjord, 79.6°N, 11°E We are 14 artists, 2 scientists, and a crew of 4 sailing as close to the North Pole pack ice as we can get away with. Aboard the M/S Noorderlicht, a hundred-year old Dutch schooner, we left Longyearbyen one week ago in the Norwegian territory of Svalbard, the most northerly point in the world with regular air service, for several weeks traveling the Arctic through open sea and sheltered bays, stopping along the way to respond to the landscape in…