Winter works

Winter provides conditions for making sculptures about the cold. Living in the mountains, we have learned where to look for the landscapes most affected by low temperatures. On the south faces of peaks where the sun no longer penetrates, ice forms and thickens day after day.

The ephemeral beauty of ice and the way it forms is an endless source of inspiration to me. On a hike up Rocky Peak, I came upon a chaotic collection of branches under a rock overhang completely coated in ice formed by water dripping onto them. Like stalactites each stick had become a support upon which the cold had written in ice. The result was a chandelier of tangled icicles.

To make a sculpture from this I wove a circular form with vines and integrated it within the ice chandelier. It barely stood out, it only just contrasted enough with the ice to be recognisable. I photographed it from many angles trying to capture the best light and composition. Leaving it overnight I hoped that the next day it would have become part of the chandelier of ice.

No such luck: a slight change of temperature and all the ice had melted away, even my woven sculpture fell to the ground, a reminder that one or two degrees of warming changes everything. Climbing higher up in the snow a frozen wetland provided a contrast for a work made from fallen leaves, their warm colours contrasting with the ice and snow.

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