Stuart Klipper,
photographer
Douglas Quin, sound recordist
David Rosenthal, painter
National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program participants
January 17–March 11, 2003
Carleton College Art Gallery
With Antarctic Visions and Voices, the Carleton College Art Gallery highlights the National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program and celebrates an historic connection between the College and the cold and distant polar continent.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has long supported scientists seeking understanding in many arenas, including astrophysics, the atmospheric, earth, and ocean sciences, biology, and human psychology and physiology. In the mid 1970s, the NSF created the Antarctic Artists and Writers Program to open the region to artists, writers, photographers, poets, musicians, and other humanists. Their voices and visions go beyond scientific data to communicate effectively the rigors and wonders of the Antarctic experience.
In a highly selective sampling, Antarctic Visions and Voices presents the work of three repeat participants in the Antarctic Artists and Writers Program: a photographer, a painter, and a sound recordist or "acoustic ecologist." Stuart Klipper, a Minneapolis-based photographer, has traveled to Antarctica six times. Best known for sweeping panoramic vistas, he has documented the southernmost continent using an arsenal of cameras and approaches. Painter David Rosenthal makes his home in Cordoba, Alaska, and has yielded to the magnetic pull of the south pole 10 times. Rosenthal has painted snow and ice in Maine, Alaska, and Greenland, and initially ventured to the research site at McMurdo Station as a member of its support staff. In recognition of his luminous paintings from the bottom of the earth, he has three times been designated an NSF artistic fellow. Douglas Quin seeks to recreate the Antarctic environment through sound. Using recording devices and an electronic mixing board, Quin represents and composes the raw sounds of the arctic into soundscapes, which are widely available through compact discs and occasional live radio broadcasts from Antarctica.
The histories of Antarctic exploration and Carleton College intersect in the figure of Laurence McKinley Gould, who served as Carleton’s fourth president from 1945 to 1962. Gould accompanied Admiral Richard E. Byrd on the successful 1928–30 polar expedition, serving as second-in-command and senior scientist. He directed the Antarctic Program during the International Geophysical Year of 1957–58, which organized continuing scientific investigation in cooperation with 66 nations.
Very few people will ever travel to Antarctica, as it remains inaccessible to all but a few scientists, adventurers, and wealthy eco-tourists. This exhibition, presenting pictures and sounds of this pristine place, invites imaginative journeys to the last terrestrial frontier.
Events
Friday, January 17
7 p.m.: Terra Antarctica
William Fox, a writer, independent scholar, and NSF Antarctic fellow,
will present a slide lecture surveying artistic interpretations of the
polar continent over two centuries; Boliou Hall, room 104
8–9:30 p.m.: Exhibition Opening Reception
Carleton Art Gallery
Thursday, January 30
4:30 p.m.: Slide lecture by Stuart Klipper, Minneapolis-based photographer and NSF Antarctic fellow; Gould Library Athenaeum
Tuesday, February 11
7 p.m.: Larry Gould in Antarctica
Featuring a film of Antarctic footage from 1929, narrated by explorer
Laurence McKinley Gould, who was Carleton’s president from 1945
to 1962. College archivist Eric Hillemann will report on his Gould biography,
a work in progress.; Gould Library Athenaeum
Friday, February 28
7–9 p.m.: Northfield Gallery Crawl
Carleton College Art Gallery, Gould Library of Carleton; Flaten Art
Museum, St. Olaf College; Northfield Arts Guild; Oriental Rug Gallery
Carleton College Art Gallery hours
Monday–Wednesday: 12–6 p.m.
Thursday and Friday: 12–10 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: 12–4 p.m.
The gallery is located downstairs in the Music and Drama Center at First
and Winona streets.
507-646-4469 or 4342
Related Sites
National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program
