ICE CORE ART SCULPTURES
CREATED BY K.A. COLORADO
ACRYLIC “REPLICATED” ICE CORE SAMPLINGS WITH IMBEDDED SCIENTIFIC TEXT
Art Sculpture Emulating Ice Core Sampling and Featuring Scientific Data on Climate and Environment Conditions Written By International Scientists & Professionals.
Part of a Series of Ice Cores To Be Exhibited in Museums and Science Forums Internationally
Introduction of the Ice Core Project
As part of a twenty-year series of artwork on climate change created and produced by K.A. Colorado, the Ice Core Project is a series of art sculptures that replicate and emulate scientific Ice Core samplings. These three-dimensional sculptures tie in with K.A. Colorado’s series of Ice Core Paintings which he completed over the past ten years and which were exhibited as part of his paper Aesthetic Considerations and Implications of Snow Mass and Texture Changes presented and published at the International Conference on Hydrometeorological Security in Moscow in September 2006.
These ice core art sculptures mimic the capturing and retrieving of historical climatic, environmental, geological, and biological data that is frozen in time, using intellectual data and human knowledge as the subject matter that is "frozen" or "captured" in the ice core samplings. Thus the "data" which K.A. Colorado encapsulates in these ice core sculptures is scientific data output by human beings who are studying and analyzing climate issues, and this data is showcased as valuable information within these replicated artistic ice core samplings.
Scientific and Professional Text Imbedded
K.A. Colorado Ice Cores feature samplings of scientific work obtained from various scientists from throughout the world, as well as first-hand accounts from professionals who have worked in climatic and arctic conditions. These writings are imbedded into, and seen inside, the ice core sculptures, which emulate ice cores through which dialogue on climate concerns can be viewed and artistically showcased.
These series of sculptures featuring joint artistic-scientific collaboration and meaning are groundbreaking and highly interesting for both the science and the art worlds, and can further help advance the current dialogue on climate change.
The scientific data and professional text material is carefully crafted into a significant artistic statement on climate issues and their ramifications as portrayed through K.A. Colorado’s artwork.
Featured International Scientists and Arctic Professionals
The works of renowned scientists and arctic professionals featured in K.A. Colorado Ice Core Sculptures include:
- Dr. Jorge Rabassa, Director of CADIC-CONICET – Laboratorio de Geologia del Cuaternario – in Ushuaia, Argentina at the Tierra del Fuego (Center at Ushuaia of the National Research Council of Argentina), who has authored several scientific books on Antarctica and presented lectures on the impact of global warming on Patagonian and Antarctic glaciers.
- Dr. Alexander A. Vasiliev, scientist and professor at the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia in Moscow, Russian Federation, and author of several climate-issue books and scientific papers.
- Neil J. Weenink, engineer and lecturer, M ASHRAE. M AIRAH. F AIHE., Queensland, Australia, who has written and lectured on energy-saving construction methods to reduce global warming and its effects.
- Lynne Cox, record-holding long distance and Arctic/Antarctic swimmer, and motivational lecturer and best-selling author, who has written about her swims and experiences in the Arctic and Antarctic.
- Ron Smith, Colonel, U.S. Air Force, who served as the in-theater commander in charge of logistics support to the U.S. Antarctic Program, including commanding the military mission in Antarctica for both air and sealift operations, and who has written and published poetry about the arctic experience.
- Morteza Anoushiravani, Director of Infrastructure for the international humanitarian organization Mercy Corps, who has developed and built water systems for impoverished and disaster-stricken areas including Africa, Indonesia, and Asia.
Creation and Construction of the Ice Core
Over the past two years, K.A. Colorado has been creating these Ice Core replicas from acrylic resin as well as glass, and conducting his fabrication of these sculptures in Troutdale, Oregon, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Skamakawa, Washington. The process is painstaking and requires much patience, but the end result is well worth the sustained effort.
Exhibition of the Ice Core Series
Current plans include exhibition of the various series of Ice Core art sculptures internationally, in both scientific and artistic venues, as well as in cultural forums.
Artist’s Statement Regarding Achieving Constructive Dialogue on Climate Change
"It is my hope that my series of Ice Core sculptures help to call attention to this most crucial issue of climate change and its effects. "
"I am dedicated to producing this significant body of work regarding arctic conditions and climate concerns, and I believe this unique project makes an artistic statement about our future and our environment."
— K.A. Colorado
Biography on K.A. Colorado
International artist and sculptor K.A. Colorado has spent the last two decades working in various climatic conditions throughout the world, using ice and snow as both a medium and a subject. From working in Antarctica and the Patagonia ice fields, to creating snow sculpture in Valois, to imbedding one of his Ice Core Sculptures in the cauldron of a volcano in South America, K.A. Colorado has performed art applications all around the globe and created art that has dealt with the global conditions associated with climate change. Recipient of the Los Angeles Contemporary Art Museum LA Artcore Award in 2008, K.A. Colorado’s work has joined science and art together aesthetically, conceptually, and intellectually, and explored the historical and human ramifications of our changing climate and environment
Ice Cores by K.A. Colorado are copyrighted and registered, including copyright with the Library of Congress and registration with the Writers Guild of America.