Donegal artist awarded international Arctic Circle Residency Award

A Donegal artist has been awarded the international Arctic Circle Residency Award

Alva Gallagher from Killybegs’ work involves a continuous exploration of oceanic movements and elements.

She began to explore the deep sea at a young age and adores the solitude experienced in the depths of the water.

Alva is now bound for Svalbard – a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole – “to travel further north through the high Arctic to the North Pole to cast rubber moulds of glaciers for my new work ‘Monuments’, a body of work translating unstable glacial formations and ephemeral natural surfaces into permanent cast glass and bronze works.

READ NEXT: Inspirational young Carrigans farmer Shannon is outstanding in her field!

The project builds from direct field encounters with ice formations and glacial surfaces, using mould-making and casting processes to preserve transient structures that are constantly shifting through melt, erosion and time.

She added: “While the work inevitably touches on climate and preservation. It’s core focus is the human condition and the need to hold, freeze and solidify people and moments otherwise destined to disappear.”

The residency follows a significant year for the work, including receiving a United Nations Medal during the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation for Alva’s sculpture Glacier, cast directly from Bow River ice in the Canadian Rockies.