Call for artists to create unique work on remote wildlife island
A Scottish conservation charity is launching an international art competition to create an installation on a remote subantarctic island that was once the epicentre of the global whaling industry.
The £2 million project has been devised in a bid to highlight the cultural and environmental importance of South Georgia, a UK overseas territory that lies around 1,000 miles from the Falkland Islands.
The initiative is the brainchild of Dundee-based South Georgia Heritage Trust (SGHT), which has been working in collaboration with US organisation Friends of South Georgia Island (FOSGI) to restore nature and preserve the territory’s legacy since 2005.
SGHT is calling for artists around the world to come forward with creative ideas for a new work that will interpret the past and highlight the successful turnaround in fortunes of the island, which had been facing the destruction of its native and iconic wildlife due to human actions.
The UK overseas territory is home to a number of rare and unique plants and animals, including whales, seals, penguins and seabirds.
From the late 1700s, it became a hub for sealers and later whalers. The industry continued for nearly two centuries, finally ending in the 1960s. By then many whales had been all but wiped out.
And man’s impact had other consequences: Rats, not naturally found on the island, were imported aboard whaling ships and rapidly multiplied. They wreaked havoc on local wildlife, including birds found only on South Georgia.
A major extermination scheme saw the island declared rat-free in 2018.
It is hoped the new art installation can help the island’s 15,000 annual visitors understand its true historical, cultural and environmental significance.
“The impact of humanity on South Georgia is emblematic of the fragility of our planet, but also gives us hope, thanks to the island’s dramatic turnaround in recent years,” said Alison Neil, chief executive of SGHT.