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Stupart, L. (2020) After the Ice, the Deluge. [Video]
Abstract/Summary
After the Ice, the Deluge is a 16 minute film using scanned 16mm; super 8; VHS and iPhone footage taken on a 2019 research trip in the Arctic Circle by the author spliced with found 16mm historical nature documentary footage. The film considers the disappearance of glacier ice and the consequent upwelling of latent microbes and viruses. Here, glacier melt is taken to be a mediating condition between traumatic realities: between an unnameable event in the past, an individual in the present who is in the grips of PTSD, and a heterogeneous future in which a new diversity of beings is emerging.
| Item Type | Video |
| URI | https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/115803 |
| Divisions | Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Arts and Communication Design > Art > Fine Art |
| Uncontrolled Keywords | glacial melt; climate change; PTSD; queer; 16mm; performance art; film; trauma; embodiment |
| Publisher | Comissioned by Haverford College |
| Publisher Statement | The largely diptych film draws from both Stupart’s performance and research in the Arctic as well as degraded historical film, upholding traumatized bodies as uniquely positioned to comprehend and contend with climate change. Here, the aging film’s scarring and damage manifest as a sympathetic magic which parallels that of the landscape it holds. Rather than the temporality of this demise feeling inescapably horrific, Stupart opens up the potential of transmogrification, the melted remains of the polar ice caps entering into traumatized bodies in the form of nano-particles, as a form of time travel, with the glaciers becoming a part of us, merging past, present, and future. The subtle drips and gushes add a soft urgency. The creeping realization that the soothing sounds are in fact the harbinger of climate destruction, and in turn the release of long-frozen bacteria and viruses, mirrors the steady advancement of glacial destruction itself. In Stupart’s quintessential style, they generate both horror and hope with equal profundity, positioning them not as counterpoints but as intimately joined responses and modes of being. Break out your best headphones. This work deserves every precious second, from the initial drips to Stupart’s haunting rendition of “Seasons in the Sun” that concludes the film. -Aubree Penney, Curator (she/her) |
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