Antarctica, the iconic landscape on many a travellers’ Bucket List’ is the focus of this exhibition by Lea Kannar-Lichtenberger as she considers how contemporary consumer culture, through tourism and the ‘Bucket List’ impacts this remote location.
Travelling in February 2017 on a 16m sailing boat resulted in a limited but eye-opening examination of one of the most visited tourist locations in Antarctica, Deception Island. Lea’s interdisciplinary vision examines the juxtaposition between wanting to preserve an environmentally critical ecosystem and the traveller’s desire to go and explore such sensitive areas.
This exhibition is not just an examination of place; it is an examination of humanity’s impact by our physical presence and from a distance. In her series Livingston I Presume 2017, Kannar-Lichtenberger considers the first vision of these places through the telescope; this beauty belies the future of exploitation that ultimately follows our presence.
From a distance, we can see our effect, Deception I Berlin 2017 takes the streets of Berlin and projects it onto a melting glacier on Deception Island, a glacier which Dissipation 2018 allows you to consider.
The exhibition is available to view now until June 26, 2022 at the Northern Rivers Community Gallery.