Antarctica – Nature’s Awesome Artwork

Abstract

My chosen inspiring work of art is an especially amazing iceberg I saw on an expedition in the Antarctic. The artist is Nature itself, and although I will submit a photograph of one iceberg, there were countless others I could submit. The Antarctic is a unique continent, in the sense of minimum interference from the Anthropocene. So, it is the closest we come to the creation of the natural world, and thereby, a sense of spirituality. This essay will explore this last frontier, as a ‘no-man’s land that belongs to everyone’, through its history, geography, and ecology, as a protected territory, a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science as an aspiration.

If Antarctica were music it would be Mozart. Art, and it would be Michelangelo. Literature, and it would be Shakespeare. And yet it is something even greater; the only place on earth that is still as it should be. May we never tame it.

– Andrew Denton, Australian television producer, 2017

(These) regions stamp us in some way with religious awe…Here we are in the sanctuary of sanctuaries, where nature reveals herself in all her tremendous power…The man who has been able to enter such a place feels his spirit lifted.

– Jean-Baptiste Charcot, Antarctic explorer, 1906