ON ICE 2020

The ice caps are melting. New landscapes are created through rising sea levels. And as the ice sheets shrink, more light is absorbed onto the earth’s surface, further accelerating global warming. A vicious circle.

This interplay between ice and light features in this series of works. Light travels through blocks of ice, large and small, industrial and domestic. As it slowly melts, its shape and form is changed, making parallels with the effects of climate change.

Photograms capture what happens on photographic paper as ice melts, the resulting images revealing fascinating patterns and textures. The ice floats in a sea of dark, negative space.

Cresciani’s images .. visually evoke the process of ice melting in new ways: as wafer thin moments in time; in extreme close up; as areas of diffused and refracted light. Abstractly beautiful .. the invitation to reflect is there – proffered not through spectacle, but by way of attachment to the mysterious, irreplaceable world they spring from. Anne Ferran

The works were made during my 2020 Dark Matter Residency at PhotoAccess. Works from the series have been 2021 finalists in the Northern Beaches Environment Award, Sydney; Du Rietz Awards, Gympie; and Milburn Prize for Landscape, Brisbane.

On Ice, 2020, gelatin silver photogram, 50.8cm x 40.6, Edition of 1