VISITATIONS: FROM GREENLAND TO ICELAND TO ALASKA IN BORDERLESS ARCTIC SEAS

On view Oct. 7, 2022 – Oct. 8, 2023
Second Floor, Arctic Gallery

How polar bears interact with humans in times of climate change is the focus of this exhibition by Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir and Mark Wilson, whose socially engaged and research-based collaborations are informed by artists, historians, ecologists, folklorists and zoologists.

Presented through a variety of media, including video, photographs, collage, drawings, zoological remains, and glass sculptures of polar bear dens in miniature scale. Visitations focuses on the effects climate change, population displacement and environmental disruption have had on polar bear encounters in Iceland.

The exhibition is based on Visitations: Polar Bears Out of Place, a three-year research project run by Icelandic and international universities, galleries and museums to contribute to a growing body of knowledge concerning human/non-human relations and habitat in a time of global warming and rising sea levels. The resulting exhibition surfaces the paradox and conflict that often arise when bear meets human in a shared and complex world.

"The art exists with the conversation." - Mark Wilson

Visitations is funded, in part, by Rannis – The Icelandic Centre for Research.