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Ice Limit

Ice Limit

Emma Stibbon, Night navigation

Drawings and prints by Emma Stibbon, RA

11 June - 5 September 2015

'Ice Limit' is an exhibition of drawings and prints by artist Emma Stibbon presented alongside the historic collections at the Polar Museum at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge. The work responds to her recent fieldwork in the Antarctic Peninsula, as an artist on placement with the Friends of SPRI and the Royal Navy, and in Svalbard in the High Arctic.

'Night Navigation' 74 x 105 cms , intaglio print

Recording has always been an important part of Polar Science and, before the widespread use of photography, most expeditions included an artist. Stibbon's work explores how the act of drawing continues to offer a critical and powerful method of recording and re-presenting the artist's perspective, and engaging the audience's imagination with the Polar environment.

Presenting drawings on an outsize scale, Stibbon immerses the viewer experientially in the work and invites reflection on our fragile relationship to the Polar Regions. Using delicate media; watercolour, graphite, carbon and aluminium powder, she suggests the elusiveness of the subject in the material fabric of the work. Stibbon affirms, 'At the heart of my work I am interested in whether the drawing process can offer a space for engagement and reflection on contemporary issues of transition and change in our surroundings.'

You can discover more about Emma's Antarctic journey and art in this fascinating Royal Academy of Arts Article and Video

About the artist

Emma Stibbon (b. 1962 Munster, Germany) studied at Goldsmiths College, London and at the University of the West of England, Bristol. She has participated in several residencies, including the Scott Polar Research Institute placement in Antarctica, the Arctic Circle expedition to Svalbard and the Derek Hill scholarship at the British School at Rome. Other projects include the Stiftung Federkiel residency at the Spinnerei, Leipzig and the 4th international Gyumri Bienniale, Armenia.

She exhibits widely, most recently participating in shows at Galerie Bastian, Berlin, R O O M, London, the Stadtmuseum, Berlin and Alan Cristea Gallery, London. Her work is held in private and public collections including the Stadtmuseum, Berlin, Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. She was elected Royal Academician in 2013.

Emma Stibbon, Corrie Emma Stibbon, Corrie (right) Emma Stibbon, Sea ice
'Corrie' 204 x 147.5 cms (diptych)
ink and charcoal dust on paper
Courtesy of Galerie Bastian
'Sea Ice '152.8 x 167cms
watercolour, graphite and aluminium powder
Courtesy of Galerie Bastian