Sue A. Miller’s immersive art installation will be a marquee show at Creemore Festival of the Arts.
The Ice Project, which debuted in Barrie in 2022, is a sensory, multi-media experience that aims to reconnect the viewer with the fragile environment and inspire responsible stewardship and climate action.
Using imagery of ice and water, sound and light, The Ice Project draws attention to the state of crisis in the Arctic regions. The space afforded by Station on the Green has inspired Miller to add a large three dimensional cultural element in the centre of the room, an idea that has pushed the oil painter outside of her comfort zone. Nine frosted mylar panels suspended from the ceiling and lit from within will represent a 12-by-10-by-six- foot iceberg, creating a feeling of being underwater. Spanning realism and abstract, oil paintings large and small are accompanied by sounds, including archival recordings from Cornell University who worked off the coast of Baffin Island in the 1970s, of whales, seals, running water, ambient underwater sounds, a glacier front calving and an iceberg cracking as it hits the ground.
Miller said the intention is to show different perspectives and activate all the senses to create a connection with the environment.
As is the nature of icebergs, she says the work is highly metaphoric. The paintings depict the keel of the iceberg representing the unknown.
The concept for the project evolved from time spent in Newfoundland, studying icebergs and sea ice as well as a fascination and deep concern for the far north. Miller says she can trace her own passion for the natural world back to childhood exploring the forests, wetlands, and shorelines of rural Ontario.
“This experience activated my imagination and provided me with solace, grounding me to a set of interconnected spaces whose beauty and complexity fascinated me,” she writes. “This continues to propel my creative drive as well as my commitment to responsible stewardship. Through a visual language that reflects the universal through the personal, my work aims to remind the viewer of a spiritual and primal connection to nature.”
Two years since The Ice Project’s debut, Miller is approaching the topic with a sense of hope buoyed by glimpses of good news amongst the bad, recognizing that “too much negativity creates a sense of overwhelming paralysis, instead trying for hope in order to create action.”
“Unless you are a scientist, one can only be informed by the media or try to sift through endless scientific sources,” said Miller. “The information can be overwhelming leaving us with a sense of doom and paralysis. My way of expressing the situation with poetic and emotional context amidst the uncertainties leaves room for hope and possibility, opening the door to inspire and engage in positive action towards a changing climate.”
- The Ice Project will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Oct. 5 and 6 at Creemore Station on the Green, located at 10 Caroline St. E.