Ryan & Kate

This summer, Ryan Weber and I worked with Elizabeth Mackie on an interdisciplinary project that combined scientific research and art as part of the MUSE program. We began by researching the Ortler Mountain in Italy and its neighboring village, Solda, which have been negatively affected by global warming. After finding a record of how much the Ortler ice cap melted each year over the last century, we interpreted that scientific data into plans for a large-scale sculpture and an artist book.

The sculpture traces the diminishing ice cap through the years, while the artist book takes the shape of the mountain as it creeps into the space the glacier used to inhabit. Both pieces are composed of several sheets of handmade paper. During a trip to Women's Studio Workshop in Rosendale, New York, we learned how to make the paper for the artist book. We also experimented with various large-scale papermaking techniques and made enough paper pulp for the sculpture. Back at TCNJ, we began making 5'x8' sheets of paper, which we manipulated to take the shape of the Ortler mountain. After we screenprinted the small sheets of handmade paper white, Ryan worked extensively on the artist book, cutting intricate shapes into it.

The sculpture, entitled King Ortler and Little Siberia, will be on display from October 5-November 15 in the Icebox, Crane Arts Center in Philadelphia, as one of ten pieces chosen for the Philadelphia Sculptor's sponsored juried international exhibition on global warming. In addition, Virginia Welsh of The Ann Street Gallery in New York has selected the piece for a global warming exhibition in Fall 2009. This September, the artist book will be exhibited in the TCNJ Art Gallery as part of the Faculty Exhibition.