Antarctika

Antarctika, started 2021

Misunderstood, often misspelled, and frequently misrepresented, Antarctica is typically missing—or, at best, distorted—on most world maps. With no permanent inhabitants to tell its own story, and few besides (some) wind-based sailors and scientists who care to listen, its uniquely wild, ancient, and living wisdom often goes unheard.

Humans landed on the moon before they finished mapping Antarctica, and the world’s entire fleet of satellites, even today, is barely able (or willing) to properly document this part of the planet. Yet Antarctica is, in its own way, one of the planet’s most vital and quietly vocal presences, since the 5.4-million-square-mile continent plays a primordial role in Earth’s ecological equilibrium and holds one of it’s most not-so-secretly coveted mineral reserves—even if extraction is forbidden under the current Antarctic Treaty.

Using one of NASA’s most detailed composite images of the continent, the Antarctika series translates pixels into embroidery stitches, compensating for its lack of representation through time and meticulous attention. With canvases that grow proportionally in size as the image’s resolution increases, the series also questions the power dynamics behind maps, technology, media, and imagery—those forces that decide what on our planet is deemed worthy of representation.