Urszula Dawkins has been to the North Pole. Well, she got pretty close anyway, give or take about 600 miles from the most northern point on earth.
Dawkins, a Melbourne and Perth-based writer along with a number of other artists including Perth choreographer Aimee Smith, spent two-and-a-half weeks sailing on a 100-year-old vessel through icy waters around Svalbard, Norway.
In December, Dawkins spoke about her experiences from The Arctic Circle international artist residency with CIA Studios.
Now she is back again with More from the Arctic Circle to deliver her epic adventures from her time on top of the world.
Dawkins told OUTinPerth she had been obsessed with the ‘wild, cold north for a long time’.
‘It’s a beautiful place, but it’s also quite shattering to be there – and that extreme experience will feed into my work, for sure,’ she said.
‘Svalbard is relatively mild compared to other locations so far north – most days the temperature was around minus eight – but when the wind was blowing it felt waaaay (sic) colder.
The Fremantle-writer couldn’t name one favourite experience from the trip instead verbally illustrating a montage of a winter wonderland.
‘There are so many things,’ Dawkins said ‘hiking around the feet of fairytale mountains, watching luminous jellyfish bobbing past the ship in the night, floating in front of a glacier amid chunks of tinkling, popping, crackling blue ice, close encounters with big, blobby walruses 600 miles from the north pole.’
The extreme landscape wasn’t the only drawcard from her experience though – Dawkins found the people she worked with to be ‘amazing’.
‘I also got to connect with an amazing group of people from all over the world – the event I’m doing will include my own work as a writer, along with several films from some of those amazing people,’ she said.
‘One of the films is Fade to White by Janet Biggs – some people might have seen her installation work Anana Dream at PICA a couple of years ago.
‘There are also two beautiful short films by a Mexican/USA artist Rebeca Mendèz, a spoken word/film piece by Laurie Palmer from Chicago, and another film by Swedish artist Katja Aglert.’
Read more about Dawkins’ adventures at her blog www.lightblue.com.au.
Then catch Dawkins in the Hub Space at CIA Studios, 480 Newcastle St, on February 3 from 6-9pm. RSVP to kate@pvicollective.com.
Benn Dorrington
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