Antarctic Artists and Writers Programme (AWP) Residencies
Theatre-maker Campbell Meas was selected for our second at-sea residency and remained on standby. Without confirmation of a definite ship berth, however, she had to make the difficult decision take up another opportunity which she was awarded with the National Arts Festival. With about a week to go, a berth had indeed become available. AWP collaborator and FicSci co-convenor, Mehita Iqani, was the only replacement participant who was able to take up this last-minute berth within her schedule.
"I’m so grateful for the opportunity to have learned more about Antarctic science and its communication, and to have had the privilege of spending a month aboard our scientific research vessel working on creative projects. It was a real joy to see this special part of the Southern Ocean and Marion Island." –– Mehita Iqani.
While on the voyage, she conducted interviews with a range of scientists for a special podcast season of The Academic Citizen, and worked on a collection of poems (published as chapbook, titled Standby), a novelette building on her short story in FicSci 03, and several short stories.
The poems in Standby are a kind of journal, capturing some of the observations and feelings that come with being at sea (for the first time) for 33 days and learning about the fascinating science being done from the ship and on Marion Island. The poems are accompanied by smartphone photos taken on the ship and island, rendered into two or three-colour risograph designs. The chapbook was designed by Nicholas Nesbitt and risograph printed by Dream Press.
Funding to support the production of this chapbook is from the National Research Foundation, through the Antarctic Artists and Writers Programme and the South African Research Chair in Science Communication. To buy a copy, please make a R300 (or more, if you can) donation to the Mouse Free Marion project with the reference “Mehita Standby”, and send your proof of payment and delivery details to fumanim@sun.ac.za / dreampressteam@gmail.com.
Read Mehita's short story, Double Flash, in the Johannesburg Review of Books.
Mehita Iqani aboard the SA Agulhas II, images from Standby
In response to the constraints and uncertainties around securing AWP berths on the SA Agulhas II, land-based residencies were added to the programme to offer selected artists opportunities to explore connections between polar scientific research and creative practice. Campbell Meas and Senna-Marie Bosman, alumni of FicSci 03, were were selected for the first residency which was hosted in Cape Town in early 2025. The art-science residency included film screenings; artists’ talks; workshops and proposal development with mentors; excursions and an eco-cruise; visits to and presentations at the University of Cape Town Departments of Oceanography and Engineering, the African Robotics Unit facilities, and the CSIR Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observatory.
"As a Joburg-based artist, the Antarctic has felt like the furthest point in my imagination and understanding of the global south. The Antarctic AWP residency afforded us the time and space to gather with fellow artists, scientists, students and thinkers as a way of gathering musings, facts, explorations and answers together. Our time was filled with excursions to Newlands forest, Simonstown, Iziko Slave Lodge and Museum, each offering a a different entry point to the Antarctic's connections to the real world. Spending time with Robyn Verrinder and the electrical engineering students specialising in robotics gave us a technical view to approaching this area – its dynamics and how we can create with adaptation in mind. Sandy Thomalla furthered this scientific view with their work under CSIR, reminding us of the multiple ecosystems tied to this area. Under the mentorship of Jean Brundrit and Charne Lavery, we collaborated with friends, fellow scholars and artists in their own right; Nicola Pilkington and Mwenya Kabwe who supported us in imagining the artistic rendering of the Antarctic and all we had engaged with over the week." –– Campbell Meas
"'Oh you’re from Johannesburg, what are you doing here?' asked our Uber driver enroute to Robyn Verrinder’s lecture room. 'Antarctica? But it’s cold there mos, would you want to go?' Campbell and I laugh. It’s a longer story than the drive allows, but we share some of what we’ve learned so far before hopping out, this time arriving at Iziko Museum and Slave Lodge. 'I don’t know why tourists even like to go there, just look around instead,' says our new driver on arrival. 'We’re not tourists', we chime, but his message kept ringing. We pause and ask ourselves, what are we doing here? This time we’re standing, eyes closed with Mwenya Kabwe and she shares with us that there’s an opportunity here to contribute to something that is still emerging.
The residency was a kind of slow conversation between artists, scientists, people of Cape Town and the sea itself. 'Whose shoulders do you stand on?' asks Nicola Pilkington in the Newlands forest. We speak for hours and the conversations continue when Campbell and I arrive back at our residence. We are welcomed again and again by Charne Lavery and Jean Brundrit – into their viewfinder: Antarctica through the lens of the arts. We’re learning how to contribute… to a lineage of science, art and history on the icy continent. This residency was a collage of rich experiences and opportunities to broaden our creative frameworks and invite us into a complex web of emerging histories of global and local importance." –– Senna-Marie Bosman
Our first at-sea residency took us by surprise when, after having been told that we would be unlikely to secure any ship berths in the first project year, we were invited to submit an application for the Marion Island takeover voyage – albeit with a very short lead time and before our national call had been issued. When a berth finally became available, AWP collaborator, Adrienne van Eeden-Wharton, was very fortunate to be able to take up this opportunity. As an artist-researcher, she continued work on Water/Log – an ongoing body of site-responsive creative praxis which traces environmental histories linking the southern African coast and adjacent islands, the sub-Antarctic islands, and the South Atlantic, Indian and Southern oceans. Water/Log includes durational field recordings, video and photography from spaces associated with the historical exploitation of marine animals – now-protected areas with fraught histories and increasingly vulnerable futures. Her work from the Marion Island takeover voyage for the upcoming Antarctic Drift exhibition includes soundscape compositions, sound and video installation, as well as an artist's book which combines still images, prose and archival material.
Links to soundscape compositions and the artist's book coming soon!
Adrienne van Eeden-Wharton, from Water/Log