A comparative review of selected NZ artists who have visited Antarctica

This project reviews the work of five New Zealand visual artists who have visited Antarctica. Four travelled as part of an Antarctic Arts Fellowship from Antarctica New Zealand and one New Zealander travelled as part of the United States science program. It includes a short survey of some official artists‟ programs to Antarctica from around the world, looking in particular at the brief given to their selected artists, the expectations regarding artists‟ participation in these programs and the desired outcomes of having been accepted and given funding to travel to Antarctica as an Arts Fellow, in order to provide a comparison with the Antarctica New Zealand Arts Fellowship program which is then described. This review of artists‟ programs selects a small representative sample of New Zealand artists who have travelled to Antarctica. The selection of this sample takes into consideration comparative media and the different styles of artworks. I am especially interested in the evolution of artists‟ works and where possible chose artists who appear to have been most impacted by their Antarctic experience, based on the artists‟ biographies and discussions with the artists themselves. I conducted semi-structured interviews with the chosen artists and this project reviews the outcomes from these discussions, drawing comparisons between the artists. The review looks at what artists gain from their experience of Antarctica, exploring their personal objectives, their methods, their insights and how they translated these into outcomes that led up to the final works exhibited relating directly to their visit to Antarctica. Finally I will explore how the artists personally view the outcomes following their visit to Antarctica, with a discussion of how these artists consider their visit has impacted on them and their work up until the present day