| Have you seen the work of book artist Rachel Hazell? The Wide White Page, her exhibition inspired by a recent extraordinary trip to Antarctica, will be in the Scottish Poetry Library from 27 July to 28 September.
For more about this, and to discover her new and fantastically enviable job title, read on.
Rachel, how did you get to Antarctica? How long were you there? And – why?
Well, the first time was in 2004 when I was artist in residence on a cruise ship semi-circumnavigating the continent; I’ve been trying to bind paper icebergs, and get back, ever since. Last year I managed to persuade the Royal Navy to take me, on HMS Endurance, for a very different month. I taught the sailors some bookbinding, and they taught me some knots… Actually, it is/was International Polar Year, so I was also officially exercising my role as Art/Science ‘bridge’ on the Education + Outreach Committee too.
If you had to pick one best moment from the trip, what would it be?
Wandering alone a little way from the ship’s surveyors who were setting up a tide camp at Paradise Harbour – we had nosed into the landing close by magical berg formations – I came upon a sheltered inlet of still dark water, reflecting the distorted compressions of glacier above, with thin triangles of shattered ice, like ripped tracing paper, to one side. Stood for a moment and sang.
How is your Antarctica experience shaping what you’ll show in this exhibition?
There are such affinities between snow, ice and paper; icebergs seem like libraries; crevasse lines on snow fields are mysterious hieroglyphs; wind corroded ice cliffs could be ripped edges of paper…. There will be paper sculpture, an installation and bookworks using maps and words from ship and library.
What’s next?
After the great honour of binding The Highland Constellation Book (part of Highland 2007) and installing a piece for Paper Scissors Stone at The City Art Centre in Edinburgh (opening October 13th) I will be returning South to work for The Antarctic Heritage Trust. For five months I shall be living on a very small island, with no electricity or running water, with two other hardy individuals, hand-stamping the mail of c16,000 tourists who visit the old British base at Port Lockroy, whilst looking out for the 400 Gentoo penguins we share Goudier Island with.
And please just tell us your full job title:
Assistant Post Mistress and Penguin Monitor.
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