‘Poles Apart’, Hastings Arts Forum (2023)
‘Poles’ refers to the geographic North and South Poles, the farthest points on Earth in opposite directions. The phrase draws an analogy between the extreme distance and dissimilarity of these geographical poles and the vast differences between the two entities.
In this exhibition Anne Lydiat shows her own photographs from Antarctica and her late husband Chris Wainwright’s work from the Arctic, literally ‘Poles Apart’ both geographically, physically and emotionally. The exbihition was reviewed in the Hastings Independent.
I firstly flew from London to Buenos Aires and then onto Ushuaia 54.8019° S 68.6451° W, a port town in the Tierra del Fuego Province and the gateway to Antarctica (an ice-covered landmass surrounded by sea, unlike the Arctic, an ice-covered ocean surrounded by land).
I had signed up to sail on board the Norwegian registered ship the MS MIDNATSOL (renamed the MS MAUD in 2021) in February/March 2019, the last ship before the onset of winter. I chose a Hurtigruten ship because of their commitment to fighting climate change, by attempting to limit the impact of mass tourism on Antarctica.
The ship sailed from Ushuaia across the Drake Passage. It was not an easy voyage as I, along with most of the passengers and crew, were seasick. The first task was to vacuum every item of clothing we intended to wear whilst in Antarctica. We were each issued with a pair of rubber boots to wear on land and a bright red waterproof with yellow hood so that we could be spotted if we deviated from the red flagged pathways at each destination.
The Antarctic photographs I selected to show in the exhibition can be seen in the book ‘The Presence of Absence’, Photography Number 12, published by Silverhill Press.
The Arctic photographs I selected by my late husband Chris Wainwright were firstly from Disco Bay, West Greenland in 2008 when he voyaged on board the Grigoriy Mikheev, a passenger ship sailing under the flag of Russia, with David Buckland, Founder and International Director of Cape Farewell. Buckland stresses “the urgency of a cultural response to climate change and believes that musicians and artists, in partnership with scientists, can inspire new and original thinking, reframing a wider public conversation around the issues of climate responsibility, stewardship and reimagining a sustainable future”.
The film in the gallery is an excerpt of Chris from the feature length film ’Burning Ice’ 2010. The voyage was the first time that Chris used the technique of illuminating icebergs with a red gel covered light and then making a photograph.
For more information on Chris’ Projects visit www.chriswainwright.com
Porthole, Ushuaia. Photo: © Anne Lydiat (2019)
Red Ice. Photo: © Chris Wainwright (2019)
