The result of a unique collaboration between two award-winning artists, photographer Peer Lindgreen and ice sculptor Duncan Hamilton, SHOCK OF THE FORM II will be presented at no format Gallery 16 – 25 September as part of Deptford X Festival’s Fringe 2022, London’s longest-running visual arts festival. With Lewisham being the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture 2022, and with climate change and the climate emergency at the forefront, local artists and arts organisations have an opportunity to be the trailblazers and influencers on matters of the environment. And the impermanence of ice makes it a conducive medium to communicate the notion of fragility: how something so present and so familiar can be gone in an instant.
Balanced on the very limits of fragility, Shock Of The Form II enters a transparency of thought, as naturally occurring fissures and refractions gather in response to changes in light and temperature. Ice leads the conversation, capturing the life-cycle of a moment; as a constantly shifting landscape of glacial governance plays with the way we perceive and interact with the world. A seemingly impossible lone figure seeks to examine the precarious and ephemeral interrelationship between man and nature on a critically wounded planet; passing through to share the secrets that exist only in the fleeting moments breath before they vanish, for ever.
The exhibition features large-scale photographs and a video installation by Lindgreen of Hamilton’s work with ice, alongside a specially commissioned ice sculpture which takes centre stage in the gallery. A temporary performance-like piece, this ice artwork reinforces the narrative of fragility and the precarious relationship between man and nature.
Working collaboratively, the artworks took Lindgreen and Hamilton over four years to produce, during which time they tested the limits of ice with different processes. Playing around with different exposures to explore the relationship between light and ice is what fascinated Lindgreen, who captured these formations with his camera, sometimes working in a minus-20˚C shipping container in Hamilton’s studio. Works such as BUG_P1, a 36-hour process uncovered unexpected and beautiful ways in which to manipulate this material. Flooded wedges of crystal ice with pink coloured water were allowed to fracture for the main body, while gasses bubbled in the ice to form delicate detailed frozen wings.
‘Abstract other-worldly sci-fi pieces would greet me at times and other times more earthy works, a wonderful blend of ice sculpting and ice texture or both. We did a 360-degree slow motion short film of an alien form in icy rain, a frozen sea in misty conditions. Every time I went, I just fell more and more in love with this frozen art form. During this passage of time with ice, I can conclude I have now experienced a cold love poem with all its lovely imperfections.’ Peer Lindgreen.
‘It all started 45 years ago with the discarded bits from my ice sculptures. The wasted, unwanted bits. I became fascinated with the beauty contained within each unique piece of ice: bubbles, minerals and beautiful fractures which sometimes split the spectrum to produce mini rainbows of colour. It was like looking into another world. I wanted a record of the beauty of that world, and it's this ongoing conversation that Peer has captured with his camera.’ Duncan Hamilton.
PRIVATE VIEW: Fri 16 September, 5pm – 9pm, as part of the Deptford X Festival private view.
OPENING HOURS: Exhibition open to the public 16 – 25 September (Thu & Fri 12noon – 7pm. Sat & Sun 11am – 5pm. Closed Mon – Wed). Admission free.
About the artists:
Peer Lindgreen: ‘The light and colours from my native northern European country, be it from the short winter days or the long evenings in the summer, has always influenced my way of photographing.’
Peer is a Danish photographer who, after studying photography, moved to London in 1992. His work has been shown in many group exhibitions and he has also had a solo exhibition at Denmark’s Photographic Museum. He has received numerous awards for his work, including Gold and Silver in The Association of Photographers Awards, and a D&AD pencil.
Duncan Hamilton is a self-taught ice sculptor who started working freelance in 1975. At that stage, Duncan was the only professional ice sculptor in the UK, working from Carlo Gatti’s Ice Factory in Battersea. Duncan’s breakthrough came in 1977 when he made a large ice sculpture for the Hyde Park Hotel (now the Mandarin Oriental), for an awards event attended by Rolls Royce, Yves St Laurent and other major companies. A photograph of this ice sculpture appeared in The Observer supplement, and was later picked up by the major news channels. This led to Duncan being commissioned to make sculptures for many celebrities, from Elton John to Justin Timberlake, London's grand hotels, product launches, advertising, film premieres, and music promos.