Desirée Patterson

Ablation Study is part of an evolving body of work examining glacial mass loss through time-based sculpture. Two photographs of the Athabasca Glacier and Mount Andromeda (prominent features of the Columbia Icefield and among the most visited glacial landscapes in the world), are encased within solid ice. These sites have undergone profound visible change over the past century, with accelerated melt intensifying in recent years.

As the ice gradually melts, the work functions as a duration-based sculptural process. I actively regulate the environment in an attempt to slow the thaw and maintain structural stability, echoing broader efforts to mitigate the effects of rising global temperatures on the cryosphere.

Over time, the sculpture transforms. Meltwater accumulates, and the photographic surfaces begin to deteriorate, dissolving into abstraction. The original landscapes become increasingly obscured, shifting from representation toward material trace. This transition foregrounds impermanence, phase change, and the instability of systems once perceived as fixed, inviting reflection on glaciers as dynamic bodies central to planetary freshwater cycles and ecological balance.