All but blank: Artistic approaches to human Antarctica

• Published in: Polar Record
• Main Author: de Pomereu, Jean
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2019
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Ecology; Geography, Planning and Development; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; Polar Record
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247419000421; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247419000421

Abstract The visual arts have played an increasingly important role in examining and critiquing past and present human activities in Antarctica as governed by the Antarctic Treaty and its Protocol on Environmental protection. This paper analyses the work of six artists who have contributed to this scrutiny, awakening us to fabrications and helping to enrich Antarctic cultures beyond the scientific and the environmental. It encourages all signatory nations to the Antarctic Treaty System to embrace and empower a more diverse artistic engagement with Antarctica and suggests that artists find new ways to address threats to the Antarctic, whether they come from within and from without.