Beth Derbyshire

Artist

Beth Derbyshire joined Cape Farewell on the 2007 Art/Science Expedition. Taking almost three weeks, the expedition crossed the north Atlantic to the extreme frontline of climate change, then sailed south to explore East Greenland's Blosseville Coast.

Beth's work is inspired by drawing, dance/contact, communication and information systems. Through their creation and installation the work seeks to explore what it means to be an individual in a world where we, and our surroundings, are frequently categorised and classified.

She is currently developing the project Anthem, a trilogy of musical films, which explore, dissect and offer different concepts of 'nation'. It is a truly epic project, expressing contemporary ideas about citizenship and nationality and investigating themes of human migration and borders. The final part of the trilogy was shot during Cape Farewell's 2007 Greenland expedition.

Anthem premieres at the Eden Project on Saturday 14 Nov 2009, opening the Winter Season of the Cape Farewell | Eden Project collaboration. Derbyshire's video trilogy will be accompanied by vocal ensemble, Stile Antico and presented in the Mediterranean Biome. Stunning imagery from the Arctic, Newfoundland and the UK, together with haunting sounds from composer, Ulrike Haage's musical score, will fill the Biome as winter draws in. Find out more ›

"We are on the thirteenth day of our expedition. I have been unable to communicate until now as all has been moving both literally and metaphorically. As we make slow progress south along the barren Greenland coast it seems possible to gather together some thoughts...

The arctic is the most sensitive place on the planet to measure climate change as it is made largely of ice. As we started our voyage out of Svalbard we stopped in a moraine strewn Fjord which should have been covered in ice and snow. The mountains newly exposed by the melt ironically looked like rusting wrecks. The ice-burgs that surround the ship carcasses of their former glory. We endured nine days at sea as the ice had locked and shut Greenland. It shouldn’t be here now, it should be much further north. Our turbulent journey around the ice to get into Greenland in itself a chilling illustration of the advance of climate change..."
Read Beth's full blog post from 4 Oct 2007 ›