Constance ARI

Produced by Constance ARI, this pilot collaboration with ACEAS (Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science) explores what can be created when the world's leading Antarctic scientists connect with some of our most engaged contemporary artists. In this program artists were asked to create original, science-informed artworks that could negotiate the spaces between high end research, climate anxiety and the impacts of a rapidly changing political, cultural and natural environment.

Shifting Antarctica presents the outcomes from this collaboration, exhibited at Beaker Street Festival’s Hobartica Precinct, in the Kent & Kent Antiques building, 3 Morrison st, Nipaluna / Hobart.

Exhibition Opening Hours:

Thursday 6 August 5:30 - 9:00pm
Friday 7 August 5:30 - 9:30pm
Saturday 8 August 5:30 - 9:30pm
Sunday 9 August 3:00 - 8:00pm

------------------------------------------

In Conversation Event:

Sunday 9 August
2pm
Meet in front of Kent & Kent Antiques, 3 Morrison st, Nipaluna / Hobart

Can contemporary art change the way we access Antarctic science? Join artist Rosie Hastie, oceanographer Professor Helen Phillips, and representatives from Constance ARI and the Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS) as they discuss the collaborative process behind Shifting Antarctica. Together, they'll explore how creative practice and climate research are essential to this moment, deepening our understanding of environmental change and helping us navigate an uncertain future.

------------------------------------------

In research and communication with scientists Helen Phillips and Prashasti Singh, artist Rosie Hastie created a body of work titles The Proof of Water, 2025. Hastie says:

"Through stop-motion and shifting imagery, the work explores a world in flux—melting, submerging, dissolving. Rising water becomes both subject and metaphor: an indication of ecological consequence and a mirror of emotional overwhelm."

Phillips says:

"The ocean has absorbed 93% of the extra heat trapped on Earth by our man-made greenhouse. My research tracks the changes in the ocean that result. The powerful ocean currents that stabilise our climate are shifting; fresh water from melting Antarctica is changing the nature of the ocean and fuelling sea level rise. All ecosystems are affected, from the microscopic plants at the base of the food chain to the largest whales and island nations being submerged. Yet, human emissions of greenhouse gases are as large as ever, inching our Earth closer to being too hot and unstable for our way of life to continue. Rosie’s work cuts through our everyday distractions to show us this chaotic and disturbing future. It conveys how easily the delicate balance of our world can be thrown off. It is a wake-up call to seize our chance to protect life on Earth. Every molecule of CO 2 we keep out of the atmosphere is progress to a safer, kinder future."

In research and communication with scientist Paola Papapetros, artist Eloise Kirk created sculptural collage, paint and wood works titled As It Lays, 2025. Kirk says:

"In As It Lays, I engage Antarctica’s ice shelves as both subject and metaphor. Conceived as a “sleeping giant,” the Antarctic ice sheet embodies a paradoxical stillness, a deceptive permanence masking deep instability. Through the processes of collage and assemblage, the work explores fragmentation and fragility, reflecting the disintegration of these vast frozen structures in the wake of global warming. Layers of paint and image simulate the motion of unrest within the grounding zone, where subglacial channels discharge meet the ocean. This unseen turbulence mirrors the wider environmental systems now destabilised by anthropogenic climate change."

Papapetros says:

"My research focuses on understanding how Antarctica’s ice sheets and surrounding environments respond to changes in climate, ocean circulation, and subglacial processes.

Collaborating with Eloise Kirk and the Constance ARI art team has been an exciting way to see these processes translated into a different language, one that communicates the beauty, fragility, and complexity of polar systems beyond the realm of data and models.

Seeing As It Lays evolving from scientific concepts into an expressive, multilayered artwork, reminded me how both science and art share a curiosity about hidden processes: what lies beneath the surface, what changes slowly over time, and how our actions shape the world we inhabit."