British, b. 1949
Burning Ice, 2004–5
Archival inkjet print of projection on the wall of a glacier
David Buckland has organized a series of contemporary expeditions inspired by nineteenth-century artist-explorers. These voyages, known as the Cape Farewell project, hosts artists and scientists to the Arctic and other regions affected by climate change.
Buckland’s own art reflects the collaborative nature of the expeditions that he organizes. In Burning Ice, the artist documents text that he projects on the face of a glacier in Spitsbergen. For this series, Buckland used 16 short excerpts from Gretel Ehrlich’s book The Future of Ice (2005), which was inspired by her participation in the 2003 maiden voyage of the Cape Farewell project. Using digital projection, Buckland poignantly gives voice to the warming glaciers. His projections appear in the Cape Farewell project film, Art from the Arctic (2005) and the book Burning Ice: Art and the Climate Change (2006).