Art & Object magazine
by Amy Funderburk
September 6, 2022

(Excerpt from article that also features artists David Buckland, Olafur Eliasson, Michael Pinsky and Zaria Forman) 

[O]n the other side of the U.S., Fire & Ice: Our Changing Landscape is on display through September 26 at The Wildling Museum of Art and Nature, Solvang, CA. Executive Director Stacey Otte-Demangate, who also curated the show, shares, “We feel that the works that artists create are often a better tool for inspiring understanding and empathy than reading a textbook or news article.”

Miami artist Xavier Cortada is one of the artists exhibiting at the Wildling. Frequently collaborating with scientists, he sees artists as “eco-emissaries,” able to help society understand our interconnectedness with nature. Cortada explains why many are slow to act despite climate warnings: “In a world of instant gratification, imminent feels too distant. It is at this juncture that art can help us see things differently.”

As a recipient of a 2006-2007 National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers fellowship, Cortada traveled to the coldest, least populated location on the planet. There, he created ‘ice paintings’ as melting ice interacted with pigment and local sediment samples. As he worked, Cortada realized that this was “the same ice that would melt and drown [his] city.”

Some of Cortada’s ice paintings were created aboard an icebreaker returning from the North Pole. As the ship rocked, melting ice created marks in pigment on paper that he had taped to the deck.

Ritual is important to Cortada: “Growing up in a Cuban-exile family, I was immersed in traditions and folklore that helped keep the memory of the homeland alive.”

During this trip, Cortada also created ritualistic art installations. In North Pole Dinner Party (2008), he fed his fellow Arctic travelers a symbolic communion: a serving of ice he had collected from the North Pole.

What made the Antarctic trip feel extreme to Cortada? The “raw emotions” he felt as scientists explained the global impact of melting ice: “Once you have that knowledge, you are forced to do something about it.”

Image above: North Pole Dinner Party, Performance at UNTITLED FAIR, 2019.