Water-Mist Wall Video
David Buckland with Cape Farewell Project behind and beside Sage Music Centre, Gateshead from 12th to 19th June

The Arctic ice is melting at an unprecedented rate, as studied by the crew members of the Cape Farewell project - an expedition to the high Arctic aboard the ship Noorderlicht (Northern Light), on which a group of eminent scientists, accompanied by several internationally acclaimed artists and writers, set about to collectively address and raise awareness about global warming. Artist and Director of Cape Farewell, David Buckland, produced a video loop filmed in the Arctic including enigmatic sayings projected onto the face of a glacier ; "Sadness Melts", "Burning Ice", "Black Abyss", and "The Cold Library of Ice" (a reference to the history of the planet's measurable carbon emissions contained within the 10,000 year-old ice). The video also shows an image of a naked, pregnant woman projected onto the ice through a smoke screen. Conscious of the vulnerability of what can be taken as seemingly unending cycles of renewal, Buckland comments, "This salient image of the pregnant woman walking is bound, for me, in our relationship to our planet and protecting it for future generations." The work is projected onto a 5 by 4 metre water wall.



Outdoor exhibition of the Cape Farewell project
behind and beside Sage Music Centre, Gateshead 12th-19th June

Alongside David Buckland's Water-Mist Wall is an outdoor exhibition of works created in the Arctic by the artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey, Kathy Barber, David Buckland, Max Eastley, Antony Gormley, Gary Hume, Michèle Noach, and Rachel Whiteread, writers Gretel Ehrlich and Ian McEwan, photographers Gautier Deblonde and Alex Hartley, film-makers Nick Edwards and David Hinton, choreographers Siobhan Davies and Subathra Subramaniam, and architect Peter Clegg. Each work refers to the effects of climate change on the wild, beautiful and fragile Arctic wilderness, using transitory materials such as ice, wind, and sound. The exhibition reflects, too, on links between everyday urban life and climate change in this remote place.



Arts Council England is Cape Farewell's major Arts funder. Cape Farewell Arts are also supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Bromley Trust.




<< Back to Programme