Casey, Sarah (2023) Melting Memories Footwear Drawn out of Ice. DRESS, 49 (2). pp. 149-155.
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Abstract
This visual essay presents drawings related to a research project that sought to develop a visual language that communicates the precarity of clothing items that have emerged from alpine glaciers in Europe. These artworks achieve a poetic effect that recalls the tensions and challenges of preserving these artifacts of glacial archaeology. This essay focuses on selected drawings of footwear from the exhibition Emergency! at Drawing Projects UK (November 10, 2022–February 4, 2023) and articulates how drawing was used as a form of touching to imaginatively translate the experience of encountering these items of footwear into artworks. The artworks offer an example of how artistic engagement with museum collections can generate a creative response to traces of the past and invite reflection on the future of our planet.