In each element of this diptych, there is an illuminated transparency from scientific sources. In both cases these are relevant to the imagery in the aluminum metalwork. This format is partly derivative of an exhibition pattern I have found effective, in which images relevant to artistic and intellectual source are displayed adjacent to interpretative artwork. In this case, these are embedded directly into the piece. ‘Scale shift’ (interrogation) thinking is also inherent in their selection.

One transparency is a satellite photograph of part of the largest iceberg ever to be recorded anywhere. (Source: NASA through University of Wisconsin SSEC Laboratory) It calved from the Ross Ice Shelf in early 2000 and soon broke into several pieces. The fragment pictured– B-15A– is still so big that in its own right was a record setter. As seen, it is hard against Cape Crozier on Ross Is. This dramatic berg calving in recent years is unfortunately not unique, and is a large element in the deep concern in the scientific community regarding the future role of ice in the global heat budget. The surrounding aluminum sculpturework represents imaginings of the extreme horizontal pressures generated by ice to ice or ice to rock collisions inherent in the movements of icebergs of this unprecedented magnitude. The fully developed cyclonic storm at only the north end of the berg serves to establish scale, so difficult in a land without the usual references.

The other transparency is from the opposite end of the scale spectrum: it is a photomicrograph of ice crystals from 3091 meters depth in the Greenland Ice Cap, from the GISP-2 (Greenland Ice Sampling Project)(Source: US Army CRREL Laboratory, Hanover, NH). This represents scientific observation of ice under extreme vertical pressures, fully ‘zoomed in’, in contrast to the preceding, fully ‘zoomed out’. The enclosing metalwork is intended to suggest the core sample itself, as it emerges from the core drill. Expanding gas bubbles often lead to fracturing when these are released from the tube; as a result, the sample is often not a smooth cylinder.

Thus, it is hoped that a series of dichotomies will be seen: satellite v core drill, stable ice cap v. wandering berg, macro v. micro scale etc. On a different level, other dualities occur: artistic imagining v. scientific recording, horizontal v. vertical fracturing, interior light v. reflection of ambient light, and so on. On a third level it is hoped that analysis of sympathetic and interdependent dualities such as mankind v. nature, science v. art.will be encouraged. After all, it is only in the examining of the fullness of all aspects of any issue or problem will a solution emerge of longevity and wisdom.