Alumni news: GOOD WINTER! by Ruth Maclennan on the World Weather Network
We are happy to share a report from Svalbard as part of the World Weather Network - A worldwide network of artists, writers and communities reporting on their weather and our climate from June 2022 – June 2024.
During her residency at Artica Svalbard in 2023, artist Ruth Maclennan continued her contributions to The Crown Letter, a worldwide open platform for the free expression of women artists, a cartography of the intimate over time and space, offering a meeting place for a community of subjectivities.
The film Good Winter! was captured on Ruth’s second day in Longyearbyen, Svalbard where she encountered a group of researchers working with the migratory birds.
"For a brief moment it looked like autumn though the icy wind suggested it was turning. I walked down to the shore again hoping to glimpse a whale or just to look out to sea. The town is much more industrial than I had expected and I wanted to turn my back on it for a while, to forget the strangeness and how far away from home I was and to feel connected by the sea. I scrambled up the steep mound that resembled a rubbish dump (it was), leaving behind the parked snowmobiles and canoes, the pallets, fuel cans and bits of scrap metal, and came upon a little cabin overlooking the fjord. There was a lot of bustling going on and several young people speaking English and looking purposeful. Sitting in her little room, Venka was keeping them busy and showing them what to do. Venka came to Svalbard many years ago and has no intention of ever leaving."
Ruth Maclennan is an artist and researcher based in London and northern Scotland. Her art practice includes films, video installations, photographs, writing, drawing and interdisciplinary and collaborative research projects. For the past ten years Maclennan has been researching experiences of climate heating and geopolitics. She was artist in residence at Artica Svalbard, September to October 2023. Nominated by NordNorsk Kunstmuseum.
Links for further reading:
Above film: Good winter! Video, 4’25”, 2024 by Ruth Maclennan