Field Notes: Meet the ship family
(Doing this very slowly with one hand and speech-to-text technology.)
Still processing everything. Here is a list of my shipmates and some of my thoughts on them and their work:
Guides:
Sarah Gerats (Expedition lead)
Kelsey
Toamas
Lisa
The guide team really made this trip! Led by Sarah who herself is an incredible artist, they did their best to accommodate every project, every request, every unusual ask. They did their best to make sure that all of us had the materials that we needed, the resources that we needed, that we could dream big on the ship or they would deliver it. I truly enjoyed Sarah for her amazing way of saying things: for example we would make a landing and she would say that there are a few options you could go for a long long hike or a long short hike or you could do a stationary hike and I always went for a stationary hike.
Shout out to Lisa for the suggestion of staying on the ship instead of making a landing on the day it was 7 degrees Celsius: the warmest day we ever had. Best decision I ever made I had the entire ship to myself it was incredibly peaceful and very needed.
Also, thanks to Toamas who reminded me that salvad was once tropical rainforest and inspired a reading of my poem Secondary Forest in front of a glacier (I have video documentation) and to Kelsey for being kind and supportive and a fun-loving person to talk to on board.
Nautical Team:
Serge
Hanner
Britt
Este
Nautical team is the entire reason we are on a boat in the Arctic Sea. Super appreciate Serge and Este for teaching me how to know that the ship is a safe distance away from a glacier and to Hanner and Britt for coming to save me on cold landings and brining us to and fro from land to Antigua.
Service Team: (Don't mess with service team)
Sabina
Wessel
Eldritch
Pete
Pete, the bringer of food, served up amazing dishes my two favourites were the night we had papadam and curry and the last night when he served up nasi goreng.
Unfortunately, Eldridge was sick so we didn't see much of her but shout out to Sabina and Wessel for being amazing service crew for serving up delicious cake and brownies and cookies and fueling the alcoholism on the ship. If you are ever on a Tallship Company boat and you have Wessel with you, he makes a mean Glacier cocktail. Ask for it!
Artists (according to cabin numbers):
Leslie Ruckman: Leslie is immediately impressive because she brought a microscope on the ship! She works in finding kin-like relationships with non-human species and her work resonates deeply with me. I really am impressed by Swan Song which visualizes the problem of how birds collide into glass windows of buildings which is a problem that both New York City and Singapore share and I would love for her to display this work here at some point.
Wytske Versteeg: Wytske is a Dutch writer who is extremely accomplished. She was working on exploring the imagination that revolves around the Arctic and how European or Scandinavian countries have this sort of spectral view of the Arctic Circle. She did read some of her work to us in English and she's likely both an incredible writer as well as translator of her work.
Sarah Aziz: Sarah became an incredible friend on board. Her work revolves around the disruption and distortion of absurdly normalized phenomena. Her aesthetic is kind of chaotic which I enjoyed. I’m very excited to see what comes out of this residency for her.
Jiabao Li: Jiabao is a NUS alumni (and yes I'm claiming that)! She is an incredibly creative human being who just continues to push the boundaries of her field, of her imagination of what it means to make art. I really enjoy her aesthetic. I'm very interested to see where else she explores and I'm very grateful that she allowed me to be part of some of her projects.
Aleksandra Zawistowska (Ola): Ola is a Polish artist and curator who is now dabbling in glass art. She was a real joy to have on the ship and she was the first one who taught me that students in the UK are not taught about the British Empire which shocked me as somebody who is from a former colony. When I asked the Brits onboard, they confirmed this fact. This soon became a running joke and post-colonialism became a theme I had to explore.
Anna Pasco: Anna was an instant friend! She's so kind and so caring and so sociable. She brought so much joy on this trip and she made the most mundane things look extremely fun. Together, we dug a hole in the ice: it took 15 minutes and four women to dig a hole in the ice but we did it. Anna is working on so many different things: she's currently exploring creatures that generate electricity and how she can collaborate with these creatures. If I remember correctly she is creating a menu based on things we find in the deep seas that will premiere later in the year.
Nancy Diessner : Nancy is a print maker. She was such a sweetheart, administering motion sickness patches when a number of people ( yours truly included) couldn’t manage the motion of the ocean. Nancy’s craft is difficult to relay but the final output is quiet, thoughtful and peaceful, in a way that one could find if one were truly alone.
Harriet Harriss: Harriet has worn many hats: architect, writer, educator. She very quickly became known as grave-lady on the ship as she wanted to dig graves around the Arctic landscape. (Not kidding)
Jenna Scatena: Jenna introduced me to procesto-writing-time where we sat behind the wheelhouse looking out at the ice and snow and water and white and blue and wondered what else we could write about while alcohol warmed our bodies. As a travel writer, I appreciated her attention to how her words have so much power and influence over people.
Edmée van Rijn : Edmee is a videographer and editor for several news outlets around the world. She primarily works in conflict zones and wanted to explore the geopolitics of the Arctic with Jenna. I really enjoyed the story she read for us onboard.
Beth Timmins : Beth is an anthropologist and archaeologist and writes for the BBC and other news outlets. She’s been such fun on board and I loved how she took nothing too seriously, really bringing a light-hearted energy to Antigua that I think we all needed.
Lea Kannar-Lichtenberg: Lea is an Australian artist exploring the impact of tourism on the poles (which is such an interesting take). She already has worked developed on Antarctica and is now moving on working on the Arctic.
Anne Hemkendreis: Better known as Ariel Anne, this art historian brought an acrobatic hoop on board and performed various stunts on it as it hung off the bow of the ship. Reading her academic work on the Arctic Imagination has been very insightful for me as well and I was briefly discussing with her what an Asian Imagination of the Arctic would be.
Jessica Miles: Jessica is a writer from Washington DC. She primarily writes nonfiction and from what I read she is very in love with Svalbard and glaciers and all things polar so much so that her Instagram handle is @secretlyapolarbear.
Alanah Knibb: My dearest cabin mate Alanah is a comic artist with a science communication background. While on board, she was looking for ways to collaborate with glaciers by asking it questions that would eventually lead to the creation of a comic she is working on. I was very privileged to sit with her on a zodiac ride and watch her ask the glaciers for consent to collaborate with her on this work. I don't know if the glaciers answered her but I found it very profound and respectful that this became part of the practice to make the art, especially when practice like this reminds me of how Australians (and New Zealanders?) acknowledge the ancestors and first persons of the land.
Sarah Anderson: Sarah is a sculpture and what I found interesting was that she was interested in how art could be kept after being exhibition i.e. how to make space-saving art. I found this fascinating because I often associate the US as being huge and therefore, it is possible to make big art works. I forget about the storage of these works when they are not in use.
Rose McAdoo: To be honest, I was most excited about Rose’s project because she makes cake about climate science and we were going to eat cake on the ship! In my pre-trip stalking, I learned about her and her cakes and I was very impressed by the fact that it wasn't just a cake of a polar bear and a simple icing sign that said ‘save the polar bears’. It was legit climate science crafted into cake. I complimented her on this on the ship and I'm so thrilled to have been part of this project where we partake in something so joyful instead of sitting in the climate disaster climate anxious space that is very prevalent in today's society. We need more joyful ways to talk about the changes we want to make!
Meg Roussos: Meg’s work is very interesting to me because it was developed out of roaming the wilderness in the US for an extended period of time. Part of her practice, which I found extremely fascinating, is walking and how the simple act of walking does so much for you and your perspective.
Scott Carroll: Scott interestingly has a ton of experience in the entertainment industry in the US. He’s currently building an app that will allow people to input their home addresses and see what their immediate environment will look like under the impact of climate change. Definitely an interesting way of making the cause more personable.
Blake Burton: Blake is an understated photographer. He was so inconspicuous throughout the trip and the way he described what he was doing was very nonchalant. He also described himself as The Unofficial Photographer. I was curious to see what photos he took and he had the opportunity to do that through a presentation he gave onboard. Blake blew me away. Left me speechless and now I'm going to order a print!
Kristofor Giordano: Kris had me when he tried to squeeze 184 slides into a 10-minute presentation; the confidence of this man! Kristofor is smart. He is intellectual and intelligent. He is exploring the post-colonial theme in a different light because he's based in California and I wish that we had more opportunities to really dig into it and to give me a sense of how he processes and sees the world. He really got into this weaving of beach plastic that we found while on our landings and I know he brought some of that back with him. It will be interesting to see how this very intelligent cerebral person physically manifests his thoughts into a tangible artwork.
Alexander Rosenberg: In many ways, I don’t think Alexander needs any introduction, having been featured on Netflix’s Blown Away. This talented glass blower also works in video, writes and does a lot of cool stuff. He brought the second microscope on board and gracefully shared his findings of tardigrades in Arctic waters.
Freddie Gluck: Freddie is a talented cinematographer. He directed a story documentary Stone Dead which showcases an elderly gentleman craving tombstones out of marble. I am grateful to have witnessed its Arctic debut!
Shawn Cheng-Hsiang Liu: Shawn (as he was called on the ship) is a multimedia artist who works in AI although he mentioned he wanted to make a film about the trip. I will affectionately remember Shawn for being a typical Asian and bringing ramen on board.
Taavi Suisalu: Taavi is from Estonia. He works in sound, photography and so much more. Undoubtedly, Taavi was one of the more creative minds onboard, always looking for new ways to circumvent status quo on the Arctic narrative. At times, he would turn into Walrus, a mythical being that possessed human Taavi and try and convince shipmates to jump overboard into the water that called to them. Walrus and Taavi are equally fun to talk to.
Jonathan Green: Last but never least, Jonathan. If this trip would have a mascot, it would be Jonathan. Jon is well-loved by all, witty, funny and very personal. He’s a printmaker who took photos, made sketches and even kept up with his fitness routine by running on a number of our landings. I’m very appreciative of Jon for helping me take breathers and checking in on me from time to time. Definately will plan to head up to Canada to visit!