Across Borge Bay

Ian Brooks

Etching
13cm x 15cm
Produced c2020

Donated to the Collection by the artist in 2021

Ian Brooks was torn between art and science at school. Opting for a degree in physics, he eventually ended up as a professor in atmospheric physics doing research on ocean-atmosphere interactions and polar climate. He never quite gave up the habit of drawing, but only after being encouraged to try etching did he start to treat art seriously again. His scientific research has taken him to many of the world’s most remote locations, including the north pole and a number of islands off the coast of Antarctica. These fragile, often bleak, landscapes have provided the inspiration for many of his etchings.

Borge Bay lies on the east coast of Signy Island, one of the South Orkney Islands off the tip of the Antarctic peninsula. The view across the bay is from Factory Cove where the British Antarctic Survey maintain a research station. I visited Signy in 2011 during a research cruise on the BAS ship the RRS James Clark Ross. The base was being closed down for the winter, and everyone on the ship was drafted to help carry all the cargo being shipped out down to the jetty – working around the elephant seals that had settled down to doze all around the base.

Across Borge Bay won the (New Light) ZIllah Bell Printmakers Prize 2020-21