AN EXHIBITION IN TWO PARTS: DEC 2017 – FEB 2018
An exploration of polar ice, humanity, and time, In Human Time presented the work of artists Zaria Forman and Peggy Weil. This exhibition was presented in partnership with the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at the Parsons School of Design.
PART ONE: ZARIA FORMAN
Whale Bay, Antarctica, No. 4
December 20, 2017–January 15, 2018
Zaria Forman's In Human Time installation featured a reproduction of Whale Bay, Antarctica, No. 4, 84x144, 2016 and a time-lapse video (above) depicting the process of making the work.
In Forman's drawings, we see at once an almost clinical degree of expository detail and the immediate, warm power of human touch. Whale Bay, Antarctica, No. 4 depicts calved glacial ice that has been grounded in the shallow water of Whale Bay in Western Antarctica. Shallow bays such as this are called “iceberg graveyards,” with wind and water sculpting the grounded icebergs into unimaginable shapes as they slowly melt away, sometimes over years.
PART TWO: PEGGY WEIL
88 Cores
January 19–February 11, 2018
Peggy Weil's installation featured the film 88 Cores, shown for the first time as part of this exhibition. The film takes the viewer down two miles through the Greenland Ice Sheet, in one continuous pan going back more than 110,000 years in time. Still images of the ice core segments were also on display.
88 Cores underscores the critical role ice core science has played in humanity’s quest to understand Earth’s past—and future—climate. The variation and fragility of the excavated cores echo the vulnerability of polar ice as the earth warms. The pace and scale of the piece is a gesture towards the immense scale and gravity of climate change.
Learn more
Check out the Climate Museum's interactive Arctic Timeline to explore critical moments in climate history, human exploration, and culture by scrolling down the ice core.
For more about the two-part exhibition, artists, and programming: