One of Scotland’s leading visual artists, Elizabeth Ogilvie, will be travelling to the Greenland ice floes, for a project that will explore the native Inuit’s knowledge of ice.

Working with filmmaker Rob Page, she will explore and film the ice floes of the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier and Greenland’s  ice cap for a project entitled: Reading Ice: The Secret Language of Ice.

Reading Ice has been commissioned by the University of Westminster and will be exhibited in 2013 at the university’s P3 exhibition space in central London. The exhibition will offer a rich portrayal of the psychological, physical and poetic dimensions of ice and water to the general public.

The exhibition will examine the role of ice as a barometer for the planet, and, using data from leading academic institutions, will explore how the Inuit interpret the ever-changing substance and its impact on their lives.

Reading Ice is a development of Ogilvie’s thirty-year creative investigation into water and humankind’s relationship to it.

Elizabeth commented: ‘For many communities, the use and knowledge of the ice-covered sea remains the pillar of their identity and resilience, their most prized intellectual treasure.’

For Reading Ice, Elizabeth is collaborating with Jo Vergunst University of Aberdeen’s Department of Anthropology and Martin Siegert and Neil Ross, Department of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh.

Amanda Catto, Portfolio Manager, International, Cultural Export and Visual Arts congratulated Elizabeth and added:

‘We’re delighted that Creative Scotland investment is enabling this imaginative research project.  We look forward to seeing the exhibition which will provide a real insight into a subject that touches all of our lives.’

Her previous works include:  Bodies of Water, Dundee Contemporary Arts; as well as exhibitions at the Arnolfini; Mead; Contemporary Art Space, Osaka; Odapark in the Netherlands; Forth Ports Warehouse and Cologne Kulturamt among others.

Students from both universities and schools in Scotland and London will be involved in the project at various stages with management of this and other elements of Reading Ice being managed by Spacesuit Arts Services.

Past work can be viewed at: http://www.elizabethogilvie.com

Source: Creative Scotland