Experimental Garden – A Conversation on Permafrost' (2021-2023) questions how to visualise the phenomenon of thawing permafrost. The project contains fifty-eight images and text fragments collected in Arctic regions, exposing the doubts and limitations inherent to documentary making. Permafrost is soil that should remain permanently frozen. However, due to climate change, this soil is thawing. This causes greenhouse gases such as CO2 and methane to be released into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming.
The locations and text in 'Experimental Garden – A Conversation on Permafrost' were gathered based on scientific research, local news reports, and personal conversations. The work takes the form of a sequence of images along with a sequence of text running asynchronously from one another. Sometimes they meet up but soon they go separate ways again, hinting at the scenes without their visual presence. Through this, the work investigates the doubts and limitations that come along within photographic documentary making, for instance a documentary on thawing permafrost.
[steam from the hot tea merges into the cold air]
- “Permafrost is the foundation upon which life in the Arctic is built, and its thawing threatens to destabilise the entire region. But because it is hidden from view, it is easy to ignore, to dismiss as a problem for another day.”
[measuring equipment beeps three times]
- “But the invisibility is also its greatest danger. It is a reminder that the effects of climate change are not always obvious, that they can be insidious and slow.”
[fieldwork continues]
[barking dog]
Installation view I
Installation view II
Installation view III