The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/27337
Antarctic expedition inspires exhibit “Unbound: To Hope ’til Hope Creates” features Chapter Two in a five-chapter installation series concerning Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans- Antarctic Expedition from 1914-17, also known as the Endurance Expedition. This expedition set out to traverse the diameter of Antarctica. Yet, because of many natural Antarctic/polar climate factors, the expedition never set foot on the continent. And although they faced many brutal trials along their way, as fate would play out, all returned to England alive. This installation finds its inspiration from two specific events from the Endurance expedition: both speak about a polar environment swallowing whole, with the possibility of leaving no trace. The first event unfolded as the ship, the Endurance, began its rumbling descent into its watery grave: eight emperor penguins mysteriously appeared alongside the crew standing out on the ice and started crying out in a manner that resembled a dirge. The second is inspired by when Shackleton and his five chosen men set sail in one of their life- boats on a more than 800-mile open-water journey in order to reach South Georgia Island, which harbored a whaling station. The boat dipped into the trough of a wave, hiding from view the remain- ing 22 crewmembers standing on the gray shore of Elephant Island, their temporary home. The sound piece is arranged from British com- poser Ralph Vaughn Williams’ (1872-1958) Sin- fonia Antarctica No. 7. The loudest sections, the crescendos and torrential occurrences, and the quietest solos, the rests and repetitions, have been lifted and rearranged to create a new piece filled with either moments of chaos or of orderliness. Moments where there is hesitation and fear, as well as moments of calm and reassurance and possible trust. The piece begins with a drum roll, which is Endurance’s entrance into the Antarctic ice pack, the beginning of its end. There are three tempera- mental segments that reference the crushing of the ship’s timbers and planks, and then its final death scene. The end is quiet and features a violin echo- ing back onto itself: the six men pulling away from Elephant Island to save the entire crew. The piece ends neither sadly nor exuding hope: it is more a feeling of distance and an internal voice of a man’s weary thoughts. Taken from Eck’s exhibit description Thea Augustina Eck Eck’s installation exhibit ‘Unbound: To Hope ‘til Hope Creates’ is seen at the Earlville Opera House on Main Street in Earlville through April 2. Thea Augustina Eck Michigan-based Thea Augustina Eck’s work responds to 19th and early 20th century Arctic and Ant- arctic exploration stories. By investigating archives and other accounts, she uses her historic imagination to combine the role of the historian with the privilege of the artist. These northern and southern spaces have existed both in the fact and the memoir, the fiction and the reverie. The voice of the soliloquy, the individual lament, guides Eck’s practice. Eck’s work has been shown in such spaces as the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., and the Camera Club of New York in New York City. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees from Alfred University and the New York State School for Ceramics and her Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan. As a grad student, Eck received two Rackham Graduate School grants to do archive research in England, Norway and Denmark on 19th Century Arctic/Antarctic exploratory history. From 2008 to 2009, Eck completed a research fellowship at the Arctic Institute in Copenhagen, Den- mark, made possible through the American-Scandi- navian Foundation and the Lois Roth Endowment. Her culminating solo exhibition, “Angalavaa: An Archive Tale,” received an artist grant from the United States Embassy in Denmark. Eck’s work has been featured in solo shows at the 1708 Gallery in Richmond, Va., and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Penn., in the past year. Her websites are www.theaeck.com and www.let- tersfromthenorth.blogspot.com. Taken from Eck’s biography March 17, 2011 O-Town Scene 9