"From the Floe Edge": British Academy funding success for Dr Isabelle Gapp

In this section
"From the Floe Edge": British Academy funding success for Dr Isabelle Gapp

Isabelle Gapp, Interdisciplinary Research Fellow in Art History, has received British Academy funding for her collaborative project on coastal sea ice, working with Sarah Cooley (University of Oregon) and the West Baffin Co-operative in Kinngait, Nunavut.

The Universities of Aberdeen and Oregon have partnered with Canada's oldest Indigenous owned and Inuit led arts organisation, the West Baffin Cooperative, to study the loss of sea ice surrounding its art studio in Kinngait, located on Baffin Island in Canada's far north.

Using printmaking and drawing, alongside satellite imagery, From the Floe Edge examines the stories, science, and visual histories of coastal sea ice which forms along the remote community’s coastline during winter and spring. 

While research has been carried out into sea ice around Kinngait before, it has largely focused on monitoring sea ice conditions for shipping and transportation. In collaboration with local Inuit artists, hunters and residents, which rely on sea ice, researchers from both universities intend to use an interdisciplinary, visual approach to understanding evolving local sea ice conditions. They are specifically interested in understanding the important local indicators of sea ice change, and how these indicators have changed over the past three decades.

Kenojuak Cultural Centre and Print Shop, Kinngait

(Above) Kenojuak Cultural Centre and Print Shop, Kinngait

Around the Circumpolar North, sea ice has been and remains a recurring motif in art history and contemporary visual culture. As opposed to a sublime aesthetic of ice, which remains central and problematic in art history, for Inuit artists in Kinngait, sea ice is closely interconnected with their social and cultural identity. Not only is the frozen shore visible from the windows of the Kinngait Studios, but the artist's own experiences of the sea ice, many as hunters, extends into the picture plane. This project will consider drawings and printmaking of the sea ice and floe edge - what is on, within, and under the ice - by Inuit artists, including Padloo Samayualie, Qavavau Manumie, and Ooloosie Saila, in conversation with glaciology and sea ice studies.

Padloo Samayualie, Spring, 2018

(Above) Padloo Samayualie, Spring, 2018, coloured pencil and ink on paper. Image: Dorset Fine Arts

It also aims to offer a local perspective on sea ice change, deepening our understanding about Inuit people and their culture. The experience of coastal sea ice, siku, and the floe edge, or sinaaq, varies across Arctic communities. By analysing and understanding the ice edge position, ice thickness, ice quality and length of ice season, researchers hope to address questions about local sea ice change and its climatological divers. 

The project was made possible thanks to a £259,000 ($447,000 CAD) grant from the British Academy Knowledge Frontiers International Interdisciplinary Research programme. 

Dr Isabelle Gapp, Interdisciplinary Research Fellow in the Department of Art History, said: “We're really excited to work alongside the artists at the Kinngait Studios to explore how Arctic visual culture and glaciology might understand historic and future sea ice changes.”

Dr Joanne Anderson, Head of Art History, added: “I am absolutely delighted for Issy and her international collaborators who are now able to embark on this exciting interdisciplinary project on coastal sea ice, past, present and future.”

West Baffin Cooperative President, Pauloosie Kowmageak, said: “We are very excited to participate in this groundbreaking and multinational initiative that bridges environmental science and the visual arts. This project will certainly highlight the unique observational skills of Kinngait artists, who have carefully documented their surroundings through drawing, print and sculpture since the very beginnings of Inuit creative expression.”

Search News

Browse by Month

2004

  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov There are no items to show for November 2004
  12. Dec

2003

  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec There are no items to show for December 2003

1999

  1. Jan There are no items to show for January 1999
  2. Feb There are no items to show for February 1999
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec

1998

  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr There are no items to show for April 1998
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul There are no items to show for July 1998
  8. Aug There are no items to show for August 1998
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov There are no items to show for November 1998
  12. Dec