Confronted by the immensity and power of desert and ice, one cannot simply stand to the side and evaluate as though one were standing before a landscape garden and other works of art. Conflicting emotions, including fear, are aroused and simultaneously absorbed or taken over by the overmastering presence of nature.

Yi Fu Tuan
Desert and Ice: Ambivalent Aesthetics, 1993

Since 2004, when she travelled to Antarctica as an Antarctic Arts Fellow (NZ), Kirsten Haydon has explored the icy continent through jewellery and object making. Her practice has considered the structures and palette of Antarctica’s forbidding terrain, its wildlife and the impact of human activity upon it. In this new exhibition, Haydon explores the forms and histories of artifacts from the huts used during Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton’s expeditions.