Lindblad National Geographic has assembled a permanent art
collection themed to the polar environment for the National Geographic
Endurance, a ship coming in 2020.
The 126-passenger Endurance is the first polar new build in Lindblad's
history. Its corridors, public spaces
and some staterooms will be filled with a wide-ranging collection of drawings,
paintings, video, photography and sculptures from some 35 artists, Lindblad
said.
Zaria Forman, whose dramatic large-scale pastel
drawings documenting climate change are exhibited worldwide, will curate the
collection and contribute some of her own works.
Zaria Forman at work on one of her paintings to be displayed on the National Geographic Endurance.
In addition to the public spaces, 12 guest suites will
feature original pieces, each including artist statements and quotes to give
guests an understanding of how these environments have impacted the artist.
Lindblad said the exhibit includes "experiential pieces",
like a John Grade sculpture of glass and resin suspended from the ceiling that
invites guests inside to enter sea ice floating on the surface of the ocean.
Replicas of ice cores taken from Greenland's ice sheet will
run the span of a four-story staircase. Glass portholes that look into tiny
hyper-realistic environments sculpted by Patrick Jacobs will reveal themselves
with fish-eye luminosity.
In another installation, the crackle of ice, looped on a
sound recording, will provide guests the ability to hear the melodic songs of
air trapped in the ice for hundreds of thousands of years being released into
the atmosphere as a glacier melts, Lindblad said.