Judith Parrott 

Antarctica 2005-2012

Talk of wilderness conjures up images of beauty, of untamed places vast and isolated. Antarctica, at the bottom of the world, seems almost to touch the deep echoing space that surrounds the planet. The Antarctic plateau, where the silence can be as profound as space itself, is the absence of all senses: no smell, no colour, no noise, no movement or life. It appears as the world’s physical manifestation of the sixth sense, that empty place where we find our intuition when our brains are still.

​

Antarctica – A Place in the Wilderness is the result of a three-month Arts Fellowship with the Australian Antarctic Division. It is part of my “Place Matters” series. The resulting exhibition is a series of silver gelatin prints of Antarctic community life on the ship south, at Australia’s three stations, Casey, Davis and Mawson, and out on the field. Also included are my diaries and a Braille version of these; an ambient soundscape; found items, with permission for their collection and display; expeditioner manuals and items supplied by the Australian Antarctic Division. Exhibition production was funded by the Australian Antarctic Division and Arts Queensland through Brisbane City Council Creative Sparks.

​

Exhibited at Parliament House Canberra; Mawson Pavilion, Hobart; Powerhouse Centre for the Arts, Brisbane; Fairfield City Museum and Gallery NSW; Maitland Regional Gallery NSW; Mornington Peninsula Gallery Victoria; and a Regional Queensland tour to 9 locations with Museum and Galleries Services Queensland.