Floating on Ice – Craig Potton images of the Ross Ice Shelf
Island 2, Ross Sea 2002. Collection of the artist
MEDIA RELEASE December 2006
Floating on Ice – Craig Potton images of the Ross Ice Shelf
Craig Potton’s love affair with the Antarctic is based on contradiction. He finds the landscape beautiful, but at the
same time recognizes the threat this extreme environment poses to human existence.
The Nelson-based landscape photographer has twice travelled to the ice. He finds he is haunted by the beauty of the
landscape, but also its vulnerability and that of those who visit such an inhospitable environment.
Potton’s last trip to the Antarctic was in 2000-01 and Floating on Ice, the exhibition opening at the Christchurch Art
Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu this Friday, 15 December, is inspired by his time spent on the Ross Ice Shelf.
Potton describes the Ross Ice Shelf as the “most extraordinary landscape I have ever been in”.
“It is the real sparseness of the landscape that attracts me. Sparse wilderness is something we don’t have in New
Zealand. We have an incredible abundance of forests, mountains and coastline but we do not have that pared back
environment where all that is left is the sky and land.”
He says the Antarctic is an environment where “there is just you and the great universe”.
“There is a great emptiness. If you look long enough at a really sparse environment you slip into an emptiness which can
be an enjoyable place to be.”
Potton says there was an obvious lack of life on the Ross Ice Shelf: “it is like you are standing on a massive white
dinner plate, a very clean one”.
“It is such a severe landscape; you do feel as though you are surviving rather than flourishing. There is a sense that
death is pouring all over you. It is quite a scary place because you are so incredibly vulnerable. It is like you are at
the limit of where humans should be trying to survive.”
He says these feelings can only be suggested by the Floating on Ice images. “There is an eeire feeling in the
photographs; a lot of anxiety that is overshadowed by the sheer beauty of the landscape. You cannot completely
comprehend the implied threat.”
“It is one of the of the largest untouched, unvisited wildernesses on earth, a place that for 30 years I have been
involved in campaigns to preserve from mining, over-fishing its edges, over-zealous scientists and excessive tourism.”
Potton acknowledges that the human impact on the environment will be catastrophic. His greatest fear is that global
warming will break up the Ross Ice Shelf – “it will be a grievous loss”.
His passion for the Antarctic is reflected in his desire to go back for a third time to complete a book on the Ross Ice
Shelf – “it is a work unfinished”.
Floating on Ice is at Christchurch Art Gallery from 15 December 2006 to 9 April 2007.
ENDS