Years later, Zaria was planning her first expedition to
the North Pole when her mother, who was to accompany
her, fell ill with a brain tumour and sadly passed away six
months later. Inspired by her mother’s dedication, Zaria
continued her work documenting climate change through
pastel artworks which portray the immense power and
beauty these landscapes retain despite their obvious
fragility. “I hope my drawings can facilitate a deeper
understanding of the climate crisis, helping us find meaning
and optimism in shifting landscapes,” she says. “One of the
many gifts my mother gave me was the ability to focus on
the positive, rather than dwell in the negative.”
She has since taken part in NASA’s Operation IceBridge,
the largest ever airborne survey of the Earth’s polar ice,
which involved flights over the Arctic and Antarctic, as
well as serving as artist-in-residence aboard the National
Geographic Explorer in Antarctica in 2015.
The artist’s process begins with these visits to locations
at the forefront of climate change. She takes thousands of
digital photographs and meets with local people who she
will talk in depth with, often about how the landscape has
been rapidly changing, negatively affecting hunting and
fishing practices and driving communities to the edge.
Back in her New York studio, she creates large-scale pastel
paintings that are based upon both her memories and
reference photos. She draws with soft pastel, using her
fingers and palms to manipulate the pigment, focusing on
individual shapes and colours before considering the image
as a whole. Given they often measure more than two metres
wide, an average piece can take 200-250 hours to complete.
Zaria is deeply passionate about her role as an artist in
communicating climate change, regularly speaking at
events to raise awareness for the cause. “We are all
affected by the climate crisis now, whether it’s extreme
weather, crop failure, or your flood insurance costs rising.
If we can all share our personal stories about this global
issue, it will help everyone connect and wrap their heads
around something that is difficult for all of us to comprehend,
and arguably the biggest challenge of our time.”
Among the Polar Ice runs until 8 March 2020 at The McManus:
Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum. http://www.mcmanus.co.uk
View more of Zaria’s work at http://www.zariaforman.com
LEFT Zaria
Forman, Svalbard
No. 33, soft
pastel on paper,
228.6x152.4cmBELOW LEFT
Zaria Forman,
Jakobshavn
Glacier, Greenland,
69°4’51.58”N
49° 28’24.41”W,
soft pastel
on paper,
172.7x275.3cmCOURTESY OF THE ARTIST ZARIA FORMAN