About this Issue
Gisela Fosado
The works featured in Gender on Ice demonstrate the way
historical and contemporary representations of the poles are far from
gender neutral, and in fact, beg for feminist critique and perspective
to dismantle, or at least disrupt, the older histories that have formed
public and scholarly imaginations for decades. This new issue, arguably
our most interdisciplinary to date, features interviews with scientists,
scholarship by social scientists, geographers and humanities scholars,
and feminist and environmentalist art of the Poles. A gallery of eleven
Polar artists makes up Part I of this issue, featuring
images, video, as well as explanatory text from and about this stellar
group of pioneering artists. Work from these and other artists appears
in the rest of the issue as well—photographers, filmmakers, and a wide
range of interdisciplinary artists—who all bring new representations
of the Polar regions. Part II includes discussions about art depicting
the Poles (i.e. Samaras, Bloom
and Glasberg), Inuit sovereignty and
mapping of the North Pole (Simon, Cuomo, Eisner and Hinkel), and
intimacy and imperialism in northern exploration (Grace and Pálsson).
Part III presents interviews with Arctic and Antarctic explorers,
scientists, as well as artists Anne Aghion and DJ Spooky (Paul Miller).
With the launch of this issue on November 20, 2008, we simultaneously
kick off a conference, also entitled "Gender on Ice," which brings
together some of the contributors to this issue to discuss gender and
the poles. With the launch of this issue on November 20, 2008, we
simultaneously kick off a conference, also entitled "Gender on Ice,"
which brings together some of the contributors to this issue to discuss
gender and the poles. The conference includes a screening and panel
discussion of Isaac Julien's True North and keynote addresses by
Sherrill Grace and Gabrielle Walker.
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