Marty St. James

UK based artist Marty St James is travelling to Antarctica for a month’s residency to express the effects of climate change. Over the next week he will perform a ritualistic rain dance to signify the severity of the current UK weather.

The traces and marks left in the snow will form part of a series of worldwide exhibitions about art in Antarctica.

Based on North America Indian Rain Dances which were used to encourage rain, St James will be performing the dance on the most southerly continent of the world, and in effect ‘upside down’, symbolising the reversal of the process.

He says of his work: “The aim is to draw attention to what is happening to our planet and how we play a part in it. The recent extreme weather conditions in the UK have seen serious flooding, damage and loss of life yet there still seems to be an unhealthy disregard for what’s going on and who might at least be adding to the problem. Antarctica gives us a real opportunity to see these changes on a vast scale, up close.”

He describes his artwork as ‘sacred portrait mandalas’ – a geometric or pictorial design usually enclosed in a circle, representing the entire universe. These are often used in meditation and ritual.

The rain dance will use bells, a hat and a stick and consist of a series of circular actions in the snow using his hat as a device for telling the sky to clear its clouds. Making a series of specially devised noises, leg movements and rolling actions, St James hopes to defy the weather and beat it into submission on its travels from South to North.

St James will arrive in Antarctica in late February and will be artist-in-residence the end of March on the coldest continent on earth. For more information, or to follow his journey, visit www.martystjames.com

Marty St. James

Diary

01

Sat 1 March 15 : meet Hercules

27

Thurs 27 Feb14: SouthAmerican evening

27

Thurs 27 Feb 14: Artists Raindance

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Marty St. James