Methane Lake by Siobhán McDonald

CCI’s focus on the visual arts during Art Basel Paris includes a screening of artist Siobhán McDonald’s film installation Methane Lake. Meditating on the sentience of ice, this filmwork explores the slow workings of geological processes dating back millions of years and imprinted deep in the Arctic permafrost.

The artist paints with invisible methane gas (released now by thawing) on blocks of ice formed up to 20,000 years ago which have calved off the Arctic ice sheet and been brought to the British Antarctic Survey (Cambridge). In a poetic expression of the transience of all things, she evokes Ensō – an ancient concept rooted in Japanese calligraphy of a circle written with canes or sticks in mid-air.
Composed by Jonathan Nangle, the soundtrack to the film A World Without Ice includes site recordings from the melting glaciers.

The EU Commission’s Joint Research Centre is supporting this screening as part of their commitment to fostering dialogue around Europe’s changing marine landscapes, glacial melt and rising sea levels.

Film credits
The artist thanks Christopher Ash (USA), Filmmaker / Chris Bean, Senior Professor and Head of Geophysics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) (IE) / Atlay Film / Dr Robert Mulvaney, Glaciologist, British Antarctic Survey.
Methane Lake was commissioned by Gluon within the framework of STUDIOTOPIA, a project co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
With the kind support of Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, the Brussels Capital-Region, The EU Commission’s Joint Research Centre - SciArt project, Arts Council of Ireland Project Award.