Isfjord, conditions over night, dig. photo, Svalbard, May 2018
Svalbard (Spitsbergen), April – July 2018
When everyone is at sleep at night there is still light. I try to find time to capture the transience of the polar region with film and photography. Alongside my function as an officer on a sailing vessel I look for former claims and traces of exploitation in less, but still, hard to access polar land.
I collect materialised footage, archeological, geological and ecological research as provided at the Arctic Centre, University of Groningen. I was invited previous to my journey to obtain more knowledge. Just to have a slight idea what science can give as a truth, or as inspiration.
Apart from ecological change I am interested in ownership, heroism and vulnerability, especially related to human presence in wild nature. The great imagery of man, adventures, manufactured sites, flags, hopes and downfalls as traces in the landscape, proof, of what had happened.
Through my work I reflect with my own adventurous desires, hopes and poetic mind by re-framing again the leftover, regained wilderness with installations or small acts by making compositions in the landscape with locally found elements. These are both from natural and industrial resources.
My aim is to emphasise the land its own space and ownership. While working especially in this region I am also claiming my own space as an artist, sailor and a woman, years behind the presence of man.
Miners at Svea coal mine, photo early 20th century, LA SHIPA; History of Large Scale Resource Exploitation in Polar Areas, 2012
Traces of coal mine industry, Russian (former Dutch) station, Barentsburg, Svalbard, May 2018
At coal mine no. 5, installation h. 1.85 m, buoy, rope, hose, steel,
Longyearbyen, Svalbard (Spitsbergen), June 2018
At the bottom of a deserted mine I connected a buoy to an iron beam that put out from the landscape. The buoy enhances the already marked space. It had hit the propellor in the harbour while mooring. Now, tight with a rope 1 inch above the ground, it shows slight movement by the wind.
Movement of ice landscapes, sketches by prof. M.J.J.E. Loonen, ecologist, Arctic Center University of Groningen; their research station is based at 78° N, Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen
