Hannah Rowan, Anatomy of Ice, 2020, single screen video.

The video ‘Anatomy of Ice’ is the documentation of a performance Rowan developed in Svalbard, in the Arctic Circle, just below the North Pole. The video combines land-based performance and underwater sound recordings, accompanied by a voiceover that merges personal narrative on touch, longing, distance and loss in relation to the melting ice in the Arctic. With a hydrophone submerged in the ocean, she was able to capture the loss of ancient air bubbles that once trapped in the ice became frozen archives of the Earth’s atmosphere. As the ice melts, these air bubbles escape, disperse into the atmosphere and their deep time memories disappear.

Part of an ongoing ephemeral and embodied research voyage into the Anatomy of Ice.

Alongside the original performance, this evolving project takes form as video, sound, text and performance readings.