Timekeepers

2024
Handblown borosilicate glas with cold bonding filled with melted glacier water from ice core samples from Antarctica and Greenland, with accompanying certificates. Dimensions variable.

Timekeepers is a series of glass sculptures that are filled with melted glacier water from Antarctica and Greenland.

Glaciers are the earth’s living memory, they can be seen as climate archives. Deep in the ice, information is stored that offers a glimpse into climatic conditions thousands, tens of thousands, and in some cases hundreds of thousands of years ago. This work is a result of a collaboration with glaciologist Michaela Mühl from the University of Bern. As glaciologists work with the ice core samples in their lab and gather the data, the ice melts and becomes water. From this point onwards, the once precious material is regarded as waste. By capturing this “waste” material in glass sculptures, the works shine a light on the deep time of the memory of glaciers in relation to the short time of human‘s interaction with it.

Each unique handblown glass sculpture comes with an accompanying signed certificate that provides the specific ice core sample information, i.e. the exact drilling location, at what depth the sample was drilled and the approximate age of the ice.

For inquiries please send an email.

Works made with Julie Anne Denton