Above and Below Cararra Nunatac, Sky Blu, Antarctica, 2006–7
Archival inkjet prints, including an echogram from under the ice in East Antarctica
29 x 35 in. (73 x 89 cm) each
Chris Drury
British, b. 1948
Inspired by his expedition to Antarctica with the British Antarctic Survey Artists and Writers Fellowship in 2007, Chris Drury interprets two views of the ice. He photographs a lonely spot, named Sky Blu, which serves primarily as a refueling station for twin otter planes destined for the South Pole. The artist compares this view with an image of the ice below captured by ice penetrating radar (IPR).
According to Drury, echograms have been described by a scientist as “an image of the heartbeat of the Earth.” The artist took this data and “placed them in layers, one in front of the other, building up a hidden landscape of the imagination.” Balancing abstraction and representation, Drury expresses the vast emptiness of the continent and the continuous flux of a living Earth.