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North Pole
As a New York Foundation for the Arts-sponsored artist, Xavier Cortada traveled to the North Pole via a Russian icebreaker in June 2008 to create new works and site-specific installations addressing environmental concerns. Having journeyed to the South Pole the prior year, Cortada wanted to create art at both extreme ends of the planet to address issues of global climate change at every point in between.
The North Pole works included the creation of Arctic Ice Paintings, a performance of the North Pole Dinner Party aboard a Russian icebreaker, a reinterpretation of Cortada’s Longitudinal Installation and Endangered World ritualistic installations from the South Pole, and the launch of Native Flags, a participatory eco-art project designed to engage people in restoring native habitats for plants and animals in urban areas.
Arctic Ice Paintings
In response to his Antarctic Ice Paintings created 18 months earlier, Xavier Cortada used Arctic ice to produce a series of ice paintings aboard a Russian icebreaker returning from the North Pole. He taped pieces of paper to the top deck of the icebreaker and placed North Pole sea ice and paint on them. As the icebreaker journeyed south from 90 degrees North, carving through the sea ice by sliding on top of it and then crushing down through it, Cortada’s ice melted and the pooled water moved as it evaporated, thereby creating the Arctic Ice Paintings made of sea ice while moving through the sea ice. He sought to use the motion of the vessel to capture the existence of sea ice before it vanished, understanding that traversing the Arctic Ocean in the decades to come would not require an icebreaker.
The Longitudinal Installation (North Pole)
As he did at the South Pole, Xavier Cortada placed 24 shoes in a circle around the North Pole, each shoe serving as a proxy for a person affected by global climate change. He placed 24 women’s shoes inches apart, along the lines of longitude that crossed the places where these 24 individuals lived, conceptually diminishing the distance between them. After positioning the shoes, Cortada went to each shoe and recited a statement from a person living at that longitude about how climate change was affecting them.
Native Flags
Amid concerns about melting polar sea ice and geopolitical control over the Arctic (using the Northwest Passage shipping lanes and extracting the petroleum resources beneath the sea ice), Xavier Cortada raised a green flag and reclaimed it for nature. He developed Native Flags, a participatory eco-art project that engages others in planting a green flag and native tree in their front yards to prevent the polar regions from melting. By reforesting urban areas, people can contribute to carbon sequestration, which helps mitigate global warming and slow the melting of the sea ice.
Learn more about Cortada's Arctic work
