You would expect a scientific voyage to the Arctic Circle to be cold and fascinating. But you might not expect it to be full of trolls, fairies and strange, hidden creatures.
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Lisa Anderson, an adjunct professor at Federation University, has been on scores of icebreaker missions along Viking routes as an in-residence artist and photographer.
But strangely, she has found herself not only believing in the Icelandic Huldufólk, but also found herself transported inside the world of harsh landscapes they inhabited.
“The first experience I had was on a Russian icebreaker and that was about 10 years ago. My work was as a photographer making images for them (the scientists) to use in different ways. They had a science team on board and part of the mission was to bring food and fuel to remote Inuit communities...and to a couple of Canadian research bases,” Dr Anderson said.
“Spending time with Inuit people in particular and scientists – who like artists are pretty obsessed with what they’re doing – we were working on ideas of what was, what will be and what is now and how those are linked together and how different our ideas of time are.
“When I was talking with these people about landscape...I almost felt myself shift inside the landscape.”
She said the Huldufólk were like the Australian bunyips, aimed at explaining dangerous landscapes and keeping people safe inside their communities.
“They’re harsh environments, they’re remote places, they have stories,” she said.
“The landscape is no longer the rocks and stones and trees, it’s our stories, our way of dealing with the land. Those marks are there and I found all of that completely fascinating. The shift – the realisation I could be inside the land and documentating the land as well – was magic, it was this magical shift. It was beautiful.”
Journeys Due North is Dr Anderson’s exhibition of sculpture and installation in response to the Arctic Circle. It is currently being held at the Art Gallery of Ballarat until October 2.
Dr Anderson is the latest artist to be featured in The Courier’s What’s Art Got to do With It? video series. For more, visit www.thecourier.com.au/news/whats-art-got-to-do-with-it