by Artist Olafur Eliasson and geologist Minik Rosing
Contemporary art is not only the way of self-reflection, showing beauty around, it is the way people could discuss and paying attention to important topics.
The globe is heating up. Both land and oceans are warmer now than record-keeping began in 1880, and temperatures are still ticking upward. This temperature rise, in a nutshell, is global warming.
Artist Olafur Eliasson and geologist Minik Rosing have installed Ice Watch, a group of twenty-four blocks of ice, in front of Tate Modern.
Olafur Eliasson and Minik Rosing hope many more people will understand the reality of climate change by experiencing Ice Watch. Although we may have seen photographs of the melting ice caps, we rarely have a physical experience of these conditions. Warmer climates have caused the Greenland ice sheet to lose around 200–300 billion tonnes each year, a rate that is expected to increase dramatically. By bringing the ice to London, and creating a temporary sculpture similar to the form of an ancient stone circle, Eliasson and Rosing enable us to engage with the ice directly. We can look at it, move around it and touch it.
The ice-blocks were fished out of the Nuup Kangerlua fjord in Greenland after becoming detached from the ice sheet. As a result of global warming, more icebergs are being produced. This is contributing to rising sea levels.
When they were installed, each ice block weighed between 1.5 and 5 tonnes. The estimated energy cost for bringing one of these blocks to London is equal to one person flying from London to the Arctic and back to witness the ice melting.
Let's remember about our home - Earth everyday next year and use instruments in our hands, especially art, to make this planet better place to be!
Author: Irina Chistikina
iraira.me