Qanuk Snowflake,
Quanuk is a durational performance which took place at IMMA in 2022. Ice, body, water and time were the elements of this work which offered visitors fleeting encounters with its presence and with the images it engendered.
Exhibited at
The melting of ice caps marks the time of our planets’ transformation. Grief about the loss of majestic icebergs is part of our collective grief for the loss of our natural expectations of our future life on the planet. The inexorability of time frames this work.
This video records a recent performance at IMMA, as part of the Earth Rising eco festival in October of 2022.
Wearing a wetsuit under a hand felted dress, and using layers of felt, lanolin and other natural fats (a nod to Joseph Beuys and to Siberian Shamans), the artist plays with large blocks of ice.
Holding, carrying, moving from location to location. The balancing of ice on the head references the gestures of African water carriers. The pushing and dragging of the blue-died ice along the ground creates watery marks, a sort of embodied, ephemeral drawing through the public site.
Most of the time, an immediate response to materials, body and site dictates the actions.
A quiet presence through the busy festival, Qanuk offered visitors fleeting encounters with the process and the images it engendered. The performance engaged with ice, body, water and time. Its duration, two hours approximately, was dictated by the time the ice took to melt.
Qanuk is a work in progress and the artist is developing new iterations.
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