Casey, Sarah (2025) Ice Watch Bietschhorn ii. [Artefact]
Ice_Watch_Bietschhorn_2_Shadow_.JPG - Submitted Version
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Abstract
Ice Watch Bietschhorn is a new drawing in a series of works that explore ways to relate to emergences from glacial ice loss. They use light shadow and sediment deposited by retreating glaciers to depict glacial sites in Valais, Switzerland seen by the artist where the sediment was gathered. The negative space drawing with the sediment – or glacial flour- acts like a stencil for light, casting a shadowy image of the glacial landscape, a view already a view from the past. The work was developed from research during a fellowship at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, exploring artists how use of negative/ positive inversion to articulate absent human presence, might be applied to non-human entities in the environment. The work was made early 2025, but now the exhibition of this work is particularly timely as the a glacier on the flanks of the Bietschhorn – the Birch Glacier – has since collapsed, bringing tonnes of rock, ice and sediment down to bury the village of Blatten below, a catastrophic event, changing the topography of the land. Ice Watch Bietschhorn has been selected by peer review for exhibition Drawing (Paper) Show 2025, part of the Liverpool Independents Biennial , at Bridewell Studios and Gallery 11 -31 July 2025.