Creative Antarctica, Australian Artists and Writers in the Far South

Research Background Creative Antarctica forms part of the ARC Discovery Project Creative Antarctica: Australian Artists and Writers in the Far South, a collaboration between RMIT University, the University of Tasmania, Flinders University, the Nevada Museum of Art (USA), and the Australian Antarctic Division. The project investigates the cultural history and contemporary artistic engagement with Antarctica through archival research, fieldwork across Australian Antarctic stations and voyages, and interdisciplinary scholarship spanning art, environmental humanities and Antarctic studies. The exhibition translates this multi-institutional research into a public curatorial framework. Research Significance Antarctica is commonly framed through scientific data, territorial sovereignty and narratives of heroic exploration. This exhibition repositions the continent as a site of cultural production, critical inquiry and embodied knowledge. By bringing together historical archives and newly commissioned works, it examines how artists respond to isolation, infrastructure, climate volatility and environmental change. The project contributes to debates on art–science collaboration, environmental representation and the ethics of presence in extreme environments. Research Contribution As lead curator, I developed the conceptual framework, commissioned new works and integrated archival and field-based research into a coherent exhibition narrative. The exhibition advances understanding of Antarctica as a mediated and constructed space, demonstrating how creative practice produces alternative forms of environmental knowledge. It proposes a curatorial model that connects artistic production, institutional history and site-based research, extending discourse on Antarctic cultural heritage and contemporary ecological imagination.