M - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

Max Eastley
Max Eastley recording sound onboard the Noorderlicht during the 2004 Art/Science Expedition � Cape Farewell
urged by him who would fain go still deeper into the
matter, that it is not the whiteness, separately regarded,
which heightens the intolerable hideousness of that
brute; for, analysed, that heightened hideousness it might
be said, only arises from the circumstances, that the
irresponsible ferociousness of the creature stands
invested in the fleece of celestial innocence and love; and
hence, by bringing together two such opposite emotions
in our minds, the Polar bear frightens us with so
unnatural a contrast. But assuming all this to be true; yet,
were it not for the whiteness, you would not have that
intensified terror.”
Then I found two extraordinary images in Gretel
Ehrlich’s book, This Cold Heaven. Blind Ambrosius, an
Inuit, says:
“Our country has wide borders; there is no man born
has travelled around it. And it bears secrets in its bosom
that of which no white man dreams. Up here we live
two different lives; in the Summer, under the torch of
the Warm Sun; in the winter under the lash of the North
Wind. But it is the dark and cold that makes us think
most. And when the long Darkness spreads itself over
the country, many hidden things are revealed, and men’s
thoughts travel along devious paths.”
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And then, a quote ascribed to Knud Rasmussen: “Do
you see that coming?” The old woman Arnaluaq asked.
“What?”
“That - out over there over the sea. It is the Dark
coming up, the great Dark!”
I remembered designing an opera by the
composer Michael Parsons: Journey To The North Pole in
1985. Parsons took as one of his starting points a
statement by the Danish philosopher Kirkegaard: that the
North Pole is a very spiritual place and it would be
uplifting to journey there, but if you couldn’t, a Sunday
afternoon walk would be just as good. The first act of the
Opera was set in a Danish sitting room. The second act
was about the rivalry between two Arctic explorers,
Cook and Peary and was set at the North Pole. I
designed a set of crumpled paper and light bulbs and a
storm scene of polystyrene beads blown by hairdryers.
The performance took place on a sweltering July
evening. This is the way I prepare for work, reading and
thinking in images, assembling and re-arranging pieces of
a puzzle like the shattered plaster relief.