Circumpolar Musings: Exhibits and shows

Berlin's beloved polar bear Knut returns on show

Amanda Graham — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 20:21:52 GMT

(Reuters, 15 February 2013) -- Knut, the hand-reared polar bear who captured Germans' hearts before his early death in 2011, returned to his adoring Berlin public on Friday as a life-sized model bearing the animal's real fur. Knut will stand for a month in the entrance foyer of the city's natural history museum, which has modified its entrance for the anticipated rush of visitors, a museum spokeswoman said. The museum is keen to stress that Knut has not been stuffed. Rather, a replica of the bear was made, based on Knut's skeleton, in one of his favorite poses, and this was covered with the creature's pelt, in a procedure known as dermoplasty. The model has expressive eyes and a damp nose, museum director Johannes Vogel said. "I think people will accept Knut, because this is a very dignified model.. People who knew Knut very well while he was alive recognize their Knut here again." Knut was the star attraction of Berlin zoo during his four-year life. His mother rejected him as a new-born leaving the fluffy white cub to be reared by a zookeeper. Thousands of visitors queued for hours to watch him frolic in his enclosure, and he inspired a dizzying array of merchandise. Other German zoos have tried in vain to create celebrity animals. None have ever come close to matching Knut's fame. The bear died suddenly of an epileptic fit in March 2011.

'Frozen Planet' went the distance to get scenes of polar worlds

Amanda Graham — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:13:51 GMT

(Yvonne Villarreal/Los Angeles Times, 25 March 2012) -- There's a world out there where a finger of ice can destroy everything in its path. Where strobes of green light dance across the sunless sky. Where unicorn-like creatures roam the sea. And it's not the stuff of CGI-loaded blockbuster fantasy film. It's "Frozen Planet, "a seven-part Discovery Channel and BBC mega-series exploring the Earth's arcane polar regions. (It premiered last week, but its first installment will repeat Sunday just before the second episode.) Made by the documentary team behind 2006's groundbreaking "Planet Earth" and narrated by Alec Baldwin, "Frozen Planet" is epic in scope and cinematic in execution, demonstrating how far nature documentary series have come. "This is not your grandfather's 'Wild Kingdom,'" said "Frozen Planet" executive producer Alastair Fothergill, referring to the show launched in the '60s that studied wild animals in their natural habitat. "There's been a long history and lots of different techniques that have been tried since then to document nature." ... Nine months of preproduction research went into the project, with a 10- to 15-page script set as a guideline. "We had to work out how we spend our money," Fothergill said. "And we try to be calculated and film novelty, because you don't want the dedicated natural history audience to say, 'We've seen every wild beast in Serengeti.' The bar is constantly getting higher and higher." To get those scenes required much trial and error — and a lot of waiting. Cameramen battled howling winds and sub-zero temperatures to shoot a never-before-caught-on-camera "wave wash," in which a pod of orcas cooperate to wash a seal off an ice floe — in a six-week trip, they witnessed more than 20 before getting the image viewers see. And director Chadden Hunter and his team scoured Wood Buffalo National Park for weeks, lugging equipment while wearing snowshoes and cross-country skis, to capture the dramatic scene of wolves closing in on bison prey that made it into the series. ...

National Geographic: Scandinavia's Sami Reindeer Herders

Amanda Graham — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:02:04 GMT

(Jessica Benko with photos by Jessica Larsen/National Geographic, November 2011) -- Two hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle, near the jagged tips of Norway's crown, the sun does not set for weeks on end during the summer months, and the midnight sun bounces off fields of midsummer snow. The solstice comes and goes, but the Sami reindeer herders are too busy to pay much attention. "We're always in the middle of calf marking at this time," Ingrid Gaup says, referring to the yearly ritual in which the herding families carve their ancient marks into the ears of the new calves. In the Sami's homeland, spread across northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, the notion of time is untethered from the cycles of the sun and is yoked instead to something far more important: the movement of the reindeer.

Preview: Arctic Convoys, 1941-1945 @ National Maritime Museum

Amanda Graham — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:19:10 GMT

(Londonist, 20 October 2011) -- A new photographic exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich looks at the grim task faced by the crews of the Arctic convoys in the Second World War. Quick history recap. During WWII, vast amounts of food, munitions and other essentials were shipped around the world to support Allied campaigns. The most famous route (at least in this country [Britain]) involved perilous journeys across the Atlantic between North America and Britain. U-boats were a constant threat, and many lost their lives in mid-ocean encounters (on both sides, as depicted in the film Das Boot). Even more harrowing, if perhaps less well known today, were the Arctic convoys that shipped supplies to Russia’s northern coast. As well as facing the same threat of torpedo and aircraft attack, the crews also had to brave biting temperatures, huge waves, thick fog and treacherous ice floes. Churchill dubbed it ‘the worst journey in the world’. The National Maritime Museum’s exhibition marks 70 years since the first convoys left harbour. While mostly photographic, the show also includes paintings by war artists and clothing worn by sailors. Many of the photographs have never been shown in public before. After visiting, you can continue the chilly theme by heading down to the museum’s High Arctic exhibition, which continues until mid-January.

Video of northern lights and stars in Iceland. Not to be missed

Amanda Graham — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 21:45:04 GMT

(Iceland Review, 30 April 2011) -- Many come to Iceland for the amazing northern lights. Sometimes you are lucky to see them, sometimes not. Amateur photographer Ásgeir Ingvarsson took more than 6,500 photos of the sky over Reykjavík and made a video of the nights in the vicinity of Reykjavík. Ingvarsson said in an interview with pressan.is that many of his photos were taken in Reykjanes (the Keflavík area), Hvalfjördur and Thingvellir. The lighthouse at Grótta by Reykjavík is also great. “I had the idea in December and I wish I had got it a bit earlier since a lot of nights have been cloudy since then. But I used the nights when some stars could be seen and the northern lights were active.” Many tourists come to Iceland in winter to see the northern light and some hotels even specialize in such tours. But you can never be sure so watch Ingvarson’s amazing video, an be sure to enlarge it to full screen. AURORA ISLANDICA - a Northern Lights Timelapse from Agust Ingvarsson on Vimeo.

Documentary of Barrow life ready for viewing

Amanda Graham — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 20:46:12 GMT

(The Arctic Sounder, 29 April 2011) -- Carl Crum of Brazos Film said he and his wife have just posted the Barrow episodes of their documentary series One Square Mile. You can watch the episodes at: http://onesquaremile.tv. In an email, they thanked everyone that helped them make this project a reality. "The community of Barrow was very supportive of our project and we are very happy with the stories we captured. We will be sending out a formal release in the following day or two, but we wanted to send out a quick 'teaser email, ' " they said. "We want to get as much feedback from people in Barrow as possible. We are also looking for Barrow residents to add their voice to the Barrow - One Square Mile by filling out this questionnaire on the website http://www.onesquaremile.tv/1sqMile/Barrow_8_form.html.

Exhibit relives the Canadian Arctic Expedition

Amanda Graham — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 21:46:40 GMT

(Susan Hallett, 26 April 2011) -- OTTAWA - Explorer-biologist historian Dr. David R. Gray, fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America, guest-curated what is a truly fascinating exhibition exploring the Canadian Arctic. A joint project produced by the Canadian Museum of Civilization in collaboration with the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, “Expedition: Arctic” is currently on view in Gallery E at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. The Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913-1918, inspired and led by Manitoba-born explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, was made up of two parties. The Northern Party searched for and found previously unidentified Arctic Islands. The explorers carried the Canadian flag into the then unexplored northwestern High Arctic. The Southern party, led by Dr. R.M. Anderson, conducted scientific research along the Canadian Arctic mainland coast. I learned that the Expedition’s bleakest times started in January 1914 when they lost their flagship Karluk. It was trapped and crushed by ice, then sank off the Siberian coast. All survived the sinking but many died on the journey to land and during the long wait for rescuers who arrived the following autumn. Remember, there were no phones or computers. In a talk, Dr. Victor Rabinovitch, president and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, said that “one of the world’s last great journeys of discovery” took place “under the flag of Canada.” He told us that the expedition “redrew the map of northern Canada, and became a source of Canadian claims to sovereignty over lands identified but not really known.” ... The exhibit is not only scholarly and informative—it is fun! Visitors enter and take a postcard with the name of one of the explorers. From then on, you follow in his shoes, or mukluks, to see if there is a place named after him, if he travelled on the Karluk, and what his role was. I was Aarnout Castel and yes, there is a place named after him. Go to http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/home for a list of “Expedition: Arctic” related events and to find out where the exhibit will travel after it closes on April 15, 2012.

Photo Finish: Mask of Sorrow

Amanda Graham — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 01:51:52 GMT

(UAlberta New Trail, Vol. 66, No. 2 (Autumn 2010)) -- This [image on the original site] is an image of The Mask of Sorrow, a statue in the northeastern Russian city of Magadan commemorating the scores of political prisoners who suffered and died in the Soviet Gulag system. The picture is part of a collection of photos from the Madagan area curated by the husband-and-wife team of Elena Khlinovskaya Rockhill and Lawrence Khlinovskaya Rockhill. The photos were taken by Pavel Zhdanov and Audrey Osipov, who was born and still lives in Madagan. Elena is the principal investigator for a Canadian Circumpolar Institute-based (CCI) international project called "Moved by the State: Perspectives on Relocation and Resettlement in the Circumpolar North." Her husband is a University of Cambridge professor emeritus and visiting scholar at the U of A’s CCI. From 1932 to 1953, Magadan was the administrative centre for the Stalin-era Gulag forced labour prison camps in that region of the Soviet Union. Designed by famed sculptor Ernst Neizvestny, The Mask of Sorrow consists of a statue of a face with tears coming from the left eye in the form of small masks. The right eye is in the form of a barred window. The back side portrays a weeping young woman and a headless man on a cross. Inside is a replication of a typical Gulag prison cell. The Soviet Union once heavily subsidized Madagan to attract people to the region to work the mines and develop other resources. When the funding dried up in post-Soviet times, nearly 60 percent of the population left the region. As a social anthropologist, Elena is fascinated by the spirit of those who have chosen to remain and thinks that spirit may resonate with northern Canadians. The Madagan exhibit is part of the CCI’s celebration of its 50th anniversary and will be on display beginning in October at the Cameron Library.

Stunning pictorial odyssey chosen by Fish and Wildlife to celebrate anniversary of national treasure

Amanda Graham — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 05:03:16 GMT

(U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via PRWEB, 1 October 2010) -- Santa Barbara, CA - After numerous all-season adventures across several years, renowned photographer Jeff Jones offers an unprecedented glimpse into a vast wilderness most people know by name, but few will ever visit. Arctic Sanctuary: Images of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (University of Alaska Press, September 15, 2010) is a stunning pictorial odyssey guided by Jones’s well-developed vision and accompanied by Laurie Hoyle’s lyrical essays. Among the most distinctive and comprehensive compilations of its kind, the publication of Arctic Sanctuary coincides with a traveling exhibition of Jones’s original and often emotionally provocative photographs. The exhibition is part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s nation-wide celebration of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s 50th anniversary. “It is a true honor to have been selected by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to represent this important milestone. I hope that my work will not only raise awareness of the refuge, but will also inspire its continued preservation,” said Jones. ... The Arctic Sanctuary photo exhibit will be on display in the gallery at the University of Alaska, Anchorage - Consortium Library through November 1, 2010, at the Well Street Art Co in Fairbanks, AK beginning December 2, 2010, at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, WV in January 2011, and at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT in spring 2011.