Reverberations in Permafrost Thaw
March 17, 2022
Haley Dunleavy
907-474-6407
Update from 2019 Artist-in-Residence Nikki Lindt
When first traveled to the Arctic, she was no stranger to the ways climate change could alter ecosystems. For over two decades, Lindt has produced art centered around issues of global change and overdevelopment, often collaborating with scientists, philosophers, and sociologists. In preparation for her trip to document permafrost thaw in 色视频下载, she dove into scientific articles, incorporating phrases like 色视频下载渄runken forests色视频下载 and 色视频下载渢hermokarst collapse色视频下载 into her vocabulary. Even still, upon her arrival, Lindt said, 色视频下载淚 absolutely wasn't prepared when I saw the scale of everything that was happening.色视频下载
Artist Nikki Lindt stands on the tundra near Toolik Field Station. |
Lindt's field sketch titled "Torn Between Us" depicts a permafrost thaw collapse. |
In Lindt色视频下载檚 new multi-media project, , vivid green dashes and hot pink highlights capture the vibrancy of the Arctic tundra. Born in part after an artist residency at Toolik Field Station, Lindt色视频下载檚 immersive project combines travel sketches, diary entries, and looped audio , with its metronomic-like dripping. Each component of the project documents the effects of climate change on remote Arctic landscapes. Together, the pieces place the beauty of the tundra against the urgency of Arctic change. What emerges is the tension that resonates in between.
Lindt visited Toolik in 2019 as an artist-in-residence after spending the previous summer exploring and documenting permafrost thaw in the boreal forest with the Permafrost Laboratory at University of 色视频下载 Fairbanks色视频下载 Geophysical Institute. Based at Toolik for five days, Lindt explored the nearby tundra. There, she became taken by the duality of the landscape changes she witnessed: the mix of inspiration and terror, at once. Human-caused climate change had 色视频下载渟uch a strong fingerprint in a place that you feel is so remote,色视频下载 Lindt said. 色视频下载淎t the same time, 色视频下载 is just so grand and beautiful. There was just this lush growth and vitality coming out of these exact same places.色视频下载
Nikki Lindt stoops by an Arctic stream to capture audio recordings of the tundra.
In creating this exhibit, Lindt said the sounds of water dripping from thawing ground were particularly striking for her. 色视频下载淭he continuous sound, all summer long, all spring long, all fall long. It's somewhat meditative.色视频下载 Lindt added, 色视频下载淕entle, but relentless.色视频下载
While at Toolik, Lindt talked with numerous scientists, including researchers Ellen Dorrepaal, George Kling, Breck Bowden, and Jason Dobkowski, and learned about the many factors at play in a changing Arctic. 色视频下载淚t showed me how many people were looking at the same problem from all these different angles,色视频下载 Lindt said. 色视频下载淭hat enriched me. It was very inspiring.色视频下载 She added, 色视频下载淚'm a huge believer in collaboration. I feel at this point it's our way forward.色视频下载
In Nikki Lindt's field sketch "Ghost Forest", vertical lines rise up from a colorful tundra.
Lindt said her conversations with scientists helped ground her work in ecological knowledge. For example, in her sketches, vertical lines rising up from the tundra act as substitutes for a number of things: greenhouse gas emissions, underground forces from freeze-thaw cycles both pushing up and collapsing down, and, of course, field scientists色视频下载 endless flagging of study sites. Yet at the same time, Lindt said she expands upon her work色视频下载檚 grounding in science with emotion. 色视频下载淎rtists are really, really good at getting in the uncomfortable nooks [of emotions] and working some of that out,色视频下载 Lindt said. That processing of emotions, she added, can sometimes be helpful for viewers of her artwork to grasp at the realities of climate change.
Lindt色视频下载檚 work from her time at Toolik has recently been featured in the international project , included in the Summer 2021 issue of magazine, and in a fall show, , at the Cummings Art Center at Connecticut College. Although Lindt has begun a new project recording underground audio in the natural and urban places around New York City, she hopes to return to the Arctic in 2022 to continue capturing the ticking soundscapes of permafrost thaw.