Antarctic Drift
Southern Africa's Heritage of Ice

​​​​The Antarctic Artists and Writers Programme (AWP) invites the public to Antarctic Drift: Southern Africa's Heritage of Ice, a multidisciplinary exhibition curated by Sikho Siyotula-Siegemund. Developed in collaboration with Jean Brundrit, Charne Lavery, and Adrienne van Eeden-Wharton, the exhibition forms part of the South African Antarctic Artists and Writers Programme (AWP) Pilot and is supported by the National Research Foundation (Grant SANAP23042396381).

 

Antarctic Drift asks audiences to reconsider Antarctica not as a distant, isolated continent but as an integral, if often overlooked, part of Southern Africa's environmental, historical, and cultural landscape. Although separated by thousands of kilometres of ocean, Southern Africa and Antarctica remain connected through weather systems, ocean currents, scientific histories, and the Southern Ocean. 
"We may never see it, but when the cold fronts arrive, we know Antarctica is there," says curator Sikho Siyotula-Siegemund. "The exhibition explores this invisible relationship and asks what it means to recognise Antarctica as part of Southern Africa's broader heritage." Bringing together artists, writers, and researchers from across disciplines, the exhibition examines themes of climate, memory, landscape, migration, archives, speculation, and environmental futures. Through photography, drawing, installation, sound, performance, creative writing, and moving image, participating artists trace unexpected connections between the Antarctic region and Southern Africa.

 

The exhibition proposes "drift" not only as a geological process but as a way of thinking—moving

slowly through histories, stories, images, and landscapes that have often remained outside public consciousness. Visitors are invited to reflect on questions of place and belonging, asking what Antarctica might mean within Southern Africa's own cultural and environmental imagination.

South Africa has long maintained scientific and logistical connections with Antarctica and the subantarctic islands. Yet the Far South has remained largely absent from South African cultural discourse. Antarctic Drift seeks to bridge this gap by bringing together artistic practice and humanities research to imagine new relationships with the polar South.

 

The exhibition forms part of the broader Antarctic Artists and Writers Programme (AWP) Pilot, a National Research Foundation-supported initiative within the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP). The project develops opportunities for artists and writers to engage directly with Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, fostering new creative work that expands public understanding of the region through exhibitions, performances, publications, and interdisciplinary research.​ Participating artists and writers include: Adrienne van Eeden-Wharton, Campbell Meas, Chloe Seller, Geomarr van Tonder, Hannah Riley, Haydn Basson, Isaac Seoka, Jean Brundrit, Johan Thom, Mehita Iqani, Senna-Marie Bosman, Sikho Siyotula-Siegemund, Svea Josephy, and Wayne Binitie.

 

Throughout the exhibition, visitors can also experience performances, live readings, sound works, and other interventions that activate the gallery as an evolving space of artistic inquiry.