Julian Charrière: Towards No Earthly Pole

Sean Kelly in New York presents Towards No Earthly Pole, Julian Charrière’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. Charrière is renowned for a complex discipline that links artistic and scientific research, bringing together ecology, geology, archaeology, physics, historical inquiry, and nomadic exploration. Focused around the US premiere of Charrière’s video work of the same name, the exhibition extends on Charrière’s exploration into how human civilisation and the natural landscape are inextricably linked.

Charrière conceived the film, Towards No Earthly Pole, aboard a Russian research ship for the first Antarctic Biennale. The Antarctic landscape and his readings of accounts of early 20th-century exploration led him to focus on Iceland, Greenland, the Rhône and Aletsch glaciers and Mont Blanc in France. Exhibited alongside the film are four sculptures titled Not All Who Wander Are Lost, 2019, inspired by a geological paradox Charrière encountered on several occasions during his travels.

Throughout the exhibition  Charrière juxtaposes fire and ice, harnessing their oppositional nature to symbolise change and transformation.