Jackie Flanagan Visual Artist
Nordica I
Acrylic and household paint on canvas
11" x 31"
2009
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Nordica II
Acrylic and household paint on canvas
11" x 31"
2009
The Snow and Ice Palimpsest
The palimpsest ('again' - 'scraped') is synonymous with the additive-subtractive process. As snow and ice melt and retreat, they leave behind traces of their existence in the landscape. Just like a palimpsest, each new layer of fresh snowfall and ice adds to the existing surface. And, as the snow and ice melts and recedes once more, newly inscribed surfaces are revealed once more - in this instance, for the Nordica series, it's a geographical cracked terrain. By appreciating the snow and ice palimpsest, a deeper understanding of the trace is formed. The trace is both presence and absence.
"The trace is the mark left by absence". Jacques Derrida
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'with the aurora borealis flaming coldly overhead, or the stars leaping in the first dance, and the land numb and frozen under its pall of snow' Jack London
