21. GREGOR SAILER - A SPACE BETWEEN PERCEPTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS.
Gregor Sailer: The Polar Silk Road - The Natural History Museum - LONDON.
Gregor Sailer, EastGRIP, Northeast Greenland Ice Sheet, Ice Core Project, 2019
Listening to The Austrian artist Gregor Sailer speak, is how I imagine, it must have been for The Victorians, who gathered in The Natural History Museum to listen to Adventurers recounting their experiences of discoveries - discussing their evidence to aghast audiences.
There is something romantic about the idea of the lonesome artist who risks his life in the pursuit of documenting uncharted territories, humanless landscapes, exotic and unknown - and then you realise that this work is not an impression, that the chilling reality is that Gregor Sailer is, in fact, an artist reflecting the Now - who dares to speak a truth which is difficult to confront, both for himself and for us. 'My job, as a photographer is to expose... I never wanted to realise a project about climate change, but soon of course, recognised that global warming is the main motor for all these developments around the north pole...I want to cause a discussion, which is going more into the depth of the topic'.
67 exhibited photographs testify to this purpose, evidencing the manmade structures located across four countries in the Arctic Circle. From isolated research centers to Icelandic geothermal power stations - Sailer documents the changes taking place across the Arctic as people increasingly build on and exploit it.
Gregor Sailer, EastGRIP, Northeast Greenland Ice Sheet, Ice Core Project, 2019
The photographer battled on a physical and emotional journey to record the images - working alone in down to minus 55-degree temperatures and waiting at times for hours to capture each frozen moment, often in volatile weather conditions.'I don't have endless materials with me, and on the other hand, it increases my perception, my consciousness.'
The exhibition, presented in mesh-cased igloos is lit with the industrial-style lighting seen in Sailer's scientific photographs.
Gregor Sailer, EastGRIP, Northeast Greenland Ice Sheet, Ice Core Project, 2019
Sailer's use of light is extraordinary, photographing at times in moonlight, the artist's favorite, which provides his portraits with a luminosity that feels solarised. The surreal nature of the land-scape-focused exhibition creates an overarching sense of calm foreboding. 'I am interested in the light of the storm - not the storm'.
Sailer exposes stark photographic evidence that as climate change accelerates, opportunistic political collectives are quick to negotiate new trade routes taking advantage of the changing landscape and providing access to new raw material deposits of natural oil and gas.
The exhibition's title; 'The Polar Silk Road', makes references to the ancient trade networks dated to the second century B.C. which link China, and the Far East with countries in Europe and The Middle East.
'On the one hand, I'm fascinated by these landscapes, I'm very impressed and have lots of respect and, on the other hand, I'm scared because I see what is going on there and what is happening there'. Gregor Sailer.
Gregor Sailer, Port of Kirkees, Barents Sea, Finnmark, Norway, 2021.
Gregor Sailer The Polar Silk Road The Natural History Museum - Until 24 November 2023.
Thank you: Harriet Potter, The Natural History Museum. References: Natural History Museum.
Special Thanks: Xiangyin Tom Gu for the recommendation + research.