Atlantica - 01.04.2006, Page 18

16 AT L A N T I CA
The science behind climate change is not always easy. Its implications are staggeringly
vast and mostly non-immediate; two conditions that most non-scientist brains don’t
always latch on to.
Since 2003, a project called Cape Farewell, a UK-based venture organized by artist David
Buckland, has been uniting scientists, artists, and the media in the spirit of generating a
gentler approach to global warming. The project has hosted three expeditions to the high
Arctic, packing writers like Gretel Erhlich and architect Peter Clegg onboard, to inspire
artwork about the fragile environment they visited in the Svalbard archipelago, Norway.
“People are very interested in seeing artwork, and that leads them to be interested in
climate change,” says Janette Scott with Cape Farewell. “There’s something in the papers
every day about climate change... Cape Farewell feels like it can bridge that divide by
engaging people, but not being too heavy-handed about it.”
In December, the project hosted its first exhibition – “The Ice Garden” – in Oxford. In
User Friendly Global Warming
Sadness Melts. Projection still, 2004, David Buckland. Walking Dance. Video still, Siobhan Davies, 2005.
Glacial Sound-scape. Max Eastley’s glacial sound-scape,
shown at The Ice Garden, 2005.
Artist David Buckland’s Cape Farewell project on exhibit in London.
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