artists vicki kerr, heather phillipson, michele sank

vicki kerr

heather phillipson

michelle sank

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vicki kerr

heather phillipson

Cover Clawr Michelle Sank Untiltled from The Submerged

michelle sank

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vicki kerr

‘the Antarctic experience’ 2011

“Where the hell are we?” (recorded words from the cockpit voice recorder of Flight 901) Air Traffic Control Tower, Auckland Airport, New Zealand, November 28th 1979.

“From the Control Tower I could see passengers boarding the DC10, ZKNZP Te 901. Amidst the steady stream of requests and instructions received and sent to aircraft that day, I took particular note of the passengers crossing the tarmac and ascending the steps on to TE901. This was the fourteenth Air New Zealand non stop flight down to Antarctica, marketed as a unique sightseeing experience, carrying an experienced Antarctic guide who would point out scenic features and landmarks, while passengers enjoyed a low-flying sweep down McMurdo Sound. At 0810, TE 901 was ready to depart.

The Captain called the tower frequency and requested permission to taxi.

Permission was granted and he was given instructions for takeoff. As the plane taxied to the end of the runway to prepare for takeoff, we asked the Captain how many souls he had on board - he replied 257. I had often thought that the aviation term “souls on board” was a strange way to identify people and I remember thinking that day that it somehow made a person seem lighter. TE 901 took off at 0821 climbing into a clear blue morning sky.

All that remained was its turbulent wake, as it slowly inched its way higher

and further away from sea level turning south following a compass heading relative to the earth’s geo-magnetic field. The flight was managed by Air New Zealand flight operations, responsible for programming the aircraft’s on-board navigation system enabling the flight crew to correctly calibrate their position during the flight, along with additional information, such as a flight briefing, maps and route information. Today seemed to progress much the same as most other days. TE901 took off and as it disappeared from view it was instructed to change frequency and contact radar control. The plane was now out of our hands and all that remained was a red arrival strip with an estimated time of arrival later that evening. We all finished our shift in the tower at around mid-day not knowing then, that an hour later at 2pm, TE901 was reported by McMurdo Centre to have been radio silent for an hour. A search and rescue operation began. Finally at 9pm Air New Zealand announced to the media that the aircraft was missing and that it would have run out of fuel. At 01.15am NZDT (New Zealand Daylight Time) unidentified debris was spotted on the slopes of the southern most active volcano on the planet - Mt Erebus on Ross Island, Antarctica.

This sighting was later confirmed to be the aircraft’s tail section bearing the airlines unmistakable Koru symbol.

Souls on board: Mostly middle aged; a professional Hammond Organ player;

world travellers (most had seen Arctic pack ice from the airline routes of the North), dreamers; office bound adventurers; an 18 year old who received the trip as a gift for passing his exams, a woman who had told her daughter that she couldn’t come and visit her in London because she would have to defrost the fridge; a man for whom blindness was just 9 months away wanted pristine images to take into darkness.

To this day controversy remains over the exact cause of the accident and who was to blame. ‘Whiteout’ weather, a condition described as a malevolent trick of the polar light and ‘pilot error’ were the causes determined by an accident investigation, however a Royal Commission of Inquiry under Justice Peter Mahon apportioned blame squarely with the airline and its practices, claiming that evidence presented by Air New Zealand was an “orchestrated litany of lies”. The crash of TE 901 remains one of New Zealand’s worst disasters.

Almost all of what remains of the aircraft is still buried where it came to rest on the slopes of Mount Erebus under a layer of snow and ice.

During warm periods when snow recedes the wreckage is sometimes visible from the air.”

Vicki Kerr Air Traffic Controller, Auckland Airport, 1979-1983

“Lle ar y ddaear ydan ni?” (geiriau a recordiwyd o gaban y peilot ar Ehediad 901) ^ Rheoli Traffig, Maes Awyr Twr Auckland, Seland Newydd, Tachwedd 28ain 1979. ^ Rheoli ‘roeddwn yn gallu “O’r Twr gweld teithwyr yn mynd ar y DC10, ZK-NZP Te 901. Yng nghanol y nifer helaeth o ymholiadau a chyfarwyddiadau a dderbyniwyd ac a anfonwyd at yr awyren y diwrnod hwnnw, nodais yn benodol y teithwyr yn croesi’r tarmac ac yn mynd i fyny’r stepiau i’r TE901. Hwn oedd y pedwerydd ehediad ar ddeg o eiddo Awyr Seland Newydd i hedfan heb stop i lawr i Antarctica. Fe’i marchnadwyd fel profiad unigryw i ymwelwyr, gyda thywysydd Antartic profiadol yn tynnu sylw’r teithwyr at nodweddion y tirwedd a’r golygfeydd hyfryd wrth iddynt fwynhau hedfan yn isel dros McMurdo Sound. Am 0810, ‘roedd TE 901 yn barod i ymadael.

Rhoddwyd caniatâd i’r Capten i gychwyn ac wrth i’r awyren symud tuag at ben y rhedfa gofynnwyd i’r Capten faint o eneidiau oedd ar yr awyren - yr ateb oedd 257. Bum yn meddwl yn aml bod y term hedfan “eneidau” yn ffordd od o ddisgrifio pobl a chofiaf feddwl y diwrnod hwnnw bod y term rhywsut yn gwneud i berson swnio’n ysgafnach. Cododd TE 901 i’’r awyr las, glir, foreol am 0821. Y cyfan oedd yn weddill oedd ôl aflonydd yr awyren, wrth iddo’n raddol godi’n uwch i’r awyr ac ymhellach i ffwrdd oddi wrth

lefel y môr gan droi am y de.

Rheolwyd yr ehediad gan systemau ehediad Awyr Seland Newydd, oedd yn gyfrifol am raglennu system llywio’r awyren gan alluogi’r criw i raddnodi eu lleoliad yn gywir yn ystod yr ehediad, yn ogystal â darparu gwybodaeth ychwanegol megis y briff ehediad, mapiau a gwybodaeth am y llwybr.

Wrth i TE901 ddiflannu o’n golwg fe’i cyfarwyddwyd i newid amledd ac i gysylltu â’r system rheolaeth radar.

‘Roedd yr awyren bellach allan o’n dwylo ni a’r cyfan oedd ar ôl oedd stribed coch yn dynodi’r amser cyrraedd tebygol yn hwyrach y noson honno. Wrth i ni orffen gwaith tua chanol dydd, ni wyddom y byddai ehediad TE901, awr yn hwyrach am 2pm, wedi colli cysylltiad radio â Chanolfan McMurdo ers awr.

Lansiwyd ymgyrch chwilio ac achub.

Am 9pm cyhoeddodd Awyr Seland Newydd i’r cyfryngau fod yr awyren ar goll ac y byddai erbyn hyn wedi rhedeg allan o danwydd. Am 01.15am NZDT (Amser Golau-dydd Seland Newydd) gwelwyd darnau anhysbys ar lethrau Mynydd Erebus ar Ynys Ross Antarctica. Cadarnhawyd bellach ymlaen mai darnau o’r awyren oedd y rhain, yn dangos yn glir symbol Koru nodweddiadol yr awyren.

Eneidiau ar yr awyren: Y rhan fwyaf yn ganol oed; chwaraewr organ Hammond proffesiynol; teithwyr y byd (‘roedd y rhan fwyaf wedi gweld iâ’r Arctig o ehediadau’r Gogledd); breuddwydwyr; anturwyr; bachgen 18 oed a dderbyniodd y daith fel anrheg

am basio’i arholiadau; dynes oedd wedi deud wrth ei merch nad oedd yn medru ymweld â hi yn Llundain oherwydd byddai hynny’n golygu dadrewi’r rhewgell; dyn oedd yn mynd i golli ei olwg mewn 9 mis ac oedd yn awyddus i gymryd delweddau clir i mewn i’r tywyllwch.

Hyd at heddiw nid ydym yn gwybod beth oedd union achos y ddamwain neu ar bwy oedd y bai. Cyflwr y tywydd a chamgymeriad ar ran y peilot oedd yr achosion yn ôl yr ymchwiliad swyddogol i’r ddamwain, fodd bynnag yn y Comisiwn Ymchwiliad Brenhinol o dan arweiniad yr Ustus Peter Mahon, rhoddwyd y bai yn gyfangwbl ar y cwmni hedfan a’i ymarferion, gan hawlio bod y dystiolaeth a gyflwynwyd gan Awyr Seland Newydd yn gelwydd noeth. Mae trasiedi’r TE 901 yn dal i fod yn un o drychinebau gwaethaf Seland Newydd.

Mae’r rhan fwyaf o weddillion yr awyren wedi eu claddu o dan yr iâ a’r eira lle y daeth i lawr ar lethrau Mynydd Erebus. Weithiau, yn ystod cyfnodau cynnes pan mae’r eira’n lleihau, gellir gweld y darnau o’r awyr.”

Vicki Kerr Rheolwraig Traffig, Maes Awyr Auckland , 1979-1983

vicki kerr

FLIGHT CERTIFICATE: This is what passengers on-board Air NZ flight TE901 would have received on their return from Antarctica. Photo supplied: Museum of Transport and Technology, Auckland, New Zealand The installation, ‘the Antarctic experience’ examines aerial space and the unpredictable event, focusing on the Air New Zealand air disaster in Antarctica in 1979. As an event that collapses the sublime, this extensively documented air accident tests the tension that exists in airspace, between the scientific, technical and rational knowing of the air, as well as cultural and sensual ways of knowing, which colonise the atmosphere and air’s more insensible qualities.

Each work in the installation is created from data gathered from the accident investigation such as archive film footage, photographs, maps and marketing material.

Vicki Kerr, born in New Zealand, lives and works in London. She is currently engaged in research entitled ‘Airspace Zones of Fidelity and Failure’ as part of a practice-based MPhil/PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London.

With thanks for technical assistance to Andrew Weatherhead, Eli Zafran and Tolga Saygin.

TYSTYSGRIF YR EHEDIAD: Dyma’r dystysgrif y byddai teithwyr ar ehediad TE901 Awyr Seland Newydd wedi ei derbyn wrth ddychwelyd o Antarctica.

Ffotograff trwy gwrteisi Amgueddfa Trafnidiaeth a Thechnoleg Auckland, Seland Newydd "Mae’r gosodwaith ‘The Antarctic experience’ yn archwilio gofod yn yr awyr a’r digwyddiad na fedrir ei ragweld, yn ffocysu ar drasiedi Awyr Seland Newydd yn Antarctica ym 1979. Fel digwyddiad sy’n dymchwel yr arddunol, mae’r drasiedi awyr hon, a gofnodwyd yn fanwl, yn rhoi prawf ar y tensiwn sy’n bodoli yn yr awyr, rhwng y gwybod gwyddonol, technegol a rhesymegol o’r awyr, yn ogystal â ffyrdd diwylliannol a synhwyraidd o wybod, sy’n gwladychu’r atmosffer a nodweddion anweladwy yr awyr.

Creuwyd pob darn yn y gosodwaith yn seiliedig ar wybodaeth a gasglwyd o’r ymchwiliad i mewn i’r ddamwain megis ffilm archifol, ffotograffau, mapiau a deunydd marchnata.

Ganwyd Vicki Kerr yn Seland Newydd ac mae hi’n byw ac yn gweithio yn Llundain. Ar hyn o bryd mae hi’n ymgymryd ag ymchwil yn dwyn y teitl ‘Airspace - Zones of Fidelity and Failure’ fel rhan o gwrs ymarferol MPhil/PhD yn Goldsmiths, Prifysgol Llundain.

Gyda diolch i Andrew Weatherhead, Eli Zafran a Tolga Saygin am gymorth technegol.

heather phillipson

Hello. It is hard to say anything that is as good as saying nothing. So, I made some things. Sort of audio-visual Joseph Cornell vitrines with stuff bumped together. Let’s call them videos.

Little happens. Little that I could describe anyway. If I did describe them, it would probably be irrelevant to anything you might actually want to know.

Each one is made in the way department stores sell off their winter jumpers. I liquidate my current stock of unverifiable postulations and what you see is the carboot sale. This is its point. Nearly all ideas come ready-crumpled.

I don’t know where they are going. Things rub together. It’s risky. It necessitates making and avoiding choices. They proceed from half-digested notions propped up with contradictory information.

It is an attempt to speculate, to converse, to disrobe. It involves a couple of images that have provoked me, noises too.

Apparently, you ought to be able to start with nothing but your own minor reality and end with an approximation of art.

Who knows.

What I would say is that, like Claus Oldenburg, I am for an art that unfolds like a map, that you can squeeze, like your sweetie’s arm, or kiss, like a pet dog.

Which expands and squeaks, like an accordion, which you can spill your dinner on, like an old tablecloth. I am for an art that embroils itself with the everyday crap and still comes out on top.

Helo. Mae’n anodd dweud rhywbeth sy’n fwy effeithiol na dweud dim. Bum yn creu rhai bethau. Rhyw fath o bethau clyweledol. Gallwn eu galw nhw’n fideos.

Does dim byd llawer yn digwydd. O leia’, fawr o ddim y gellir ei ddisgrifio. Taswn yn treio ei ddisgrifio, mwy na thebyg ni fyddai’r disgrifiad yn berthnasol i unrhyw beth yr hoffech wybod o ddifrif.

Gwneir pob darn yn yr un modd ag y mae siopau dillad yn cael gwared o’u stoc ar ddiwedd y tymor. ‘Rwy’n cael gwared o’m stoc cyfredol a’r hyn yr ydych chi’n ei weld yw’r sêl cist-car. Dyma holl bwynt y peth. Mae’r rhan fwyaf o syniadau yn dod wedi eu crychu’n barod.

Heather Phillipson works with sounds and images. She exhibits nationally and internationally, and has received awards, commissions and residencies. She is also an award-winning poet and has been published and broadcast widely.

She is based in London.

Mae Heather Phillipson yn gweithio gyda synau a delweddau. Mae hi’n arddangos yn genedlaethol ac yn rhyngwladol gan dderbyn gwobrau, comisiynau a chyfnodau preswyl. Mae hi hefyd yn fardd llwyddiannus gyda’i gwaith yn cael ei gyhoeddi a’i ddarlledu’n eang. Mae hi’n gweithio o Lundain.

Dwn i ddim lle maent yn mynd. Mae pethau’n rhwbio yn erbyn ei gilydd. Mae’n broses mentrus. Mae’n golygu gwneud ac osgoi penderfyniadau. Mae rhyw syniadau ar eu hanner yn cael eu propio i fyny gyda gwybodaeth anghyson.

Mae’n ymdrech i ddyfalu, i sgwrsio, i ddadwisgo. Ceir yma gwpwl o ddelweddau sydd wedi fy mhryfocio, synau hefyd. Yn ôl pob golwg, dylech fod yn medru dechrau gyda dim byd ond eich realiti eich hun a gorffen gyda darn o ^ gelf. Pwy a yr.

Buaswn i’n dweud, fel Claus Oldenburg, fy mod o blaid celf sy’n agor fel map, y gellir ei gwasgu, fel braich eich cariad, neu ei chusanu, fel anifail anwes. Sy’n ymestyn ac yn gwichian, fel acordion, y gallwch golli eich cinio arni fel hen liain bwrdd. ‘Rwyf o blaid celf sy’n ymwneud â phethau dinod bob dydd ac sydd eto’n fuddugol yn y pendraw.

(Still from) (spaciously, away from surfaces with their hard, separate facts, looking at) A Mark on the Wall (Still from) Well this is embarrassing.

Half an hour in 12 episodes

(Still from) Well this is embarrassing.Half an hour in 12 episodes.

michelle sank

“My practice is concerned with the notion of encountering, collecting, and re-telling. I’m interested in creating sociological landscapes, interplays of human form and location that are significant in their visual, sociological and psychological nuances.

“Mae f’ymarfer yn ymwneud â’r syniad o gyfarfod, casglu ac ailadrodd. ‘Rwy’n ymddiddori mewn creu tirweddau cymdeithasegol, a’r cydadweithio rhwng ffurfiau dynol a lleoliad sy’n arwyddocaol o safbwynt gweledol, cymdeithasegol a seicolegol.

Known as a portrait photographer, I embraced both community and place within this new body of work “The Submerged”.

The imagery was produced within Mid-Wales in and around Aberystwyth - a town that exists at the end of a railway line. I was intrigued by the way both structures and people interacted with the urban and natural make-up of this environment and was drawn towards a sense of grittiness and resolution within the geological and architectural fabric of the place, something so often mimicked in the light, colour, dramatic skies and the human performance within.”

Fe’m cydnabyddwyd eisoes fel ffotograffydd portread ac mae’r darn newydd hwn sef “The Submerged” yn ymwneud â chymuned a lleoliad.

Cynhyrchwyd y delweddau yng Nghanolbarth Cymru, yn ac o gwmpas Aberystwyth - tref a leolir ar ben lein rheilffordd. ‘Roeddwn yn ymddiddori yn y ffordd yr oedd strwythurau a phobl yn rhyngweithio gyda’r amgylchedd trefol a naturiol a chefais fy nhynnu tuag at y teimlad o gaderndid a phenderfyniad o fewn ffabrig geolegol a phensaerniol y lle, rhywbeth a adlewyrchwyd yn aml yn y golau, y lliwiau, y ffurfafen ddramatig a’r perfformiad dynol tu mewn.”

Untiltled from The Submerged

Untiltled from The Submerged

Michelle Sank was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She has been living and working in the UK since 1987. Her photographs have been exhibited and published extensively in England, Europe, Australia, Mexico, South Africa and the U.S.A. She has undertaken numerous commissions for prominent galleries and magazines in Europe and abroad. Her work is held in both private and permanent collections, and she was recently a prize winner in the Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

She has 2 published books : “The Water’s Edge”- portraits and stories about women who used to - and still work - on Liverpool Docks, and “Becoming” - a monograph.

‘The Submerged’ will be published by Maarten Schilt in 2011.

Ganwyd Michelle Sank yn Cape Town, De Affrica. Mae hi wedi bod yn byw ac yn gweithio yn y DU ers 1987. Mae ei ffotograffau wedi cael eu harddangos a’u cyhoeddi’n eang yn Lloegr, Ewrop, Awstralia, Mecsico, De Affrica ac UDA. Mae hi wedi ymgymryd â llawer o gomisiynau ar gyfer orielau a chylchgronau blaenllaw yn Ewrop a thramor. Dangosir ei gwaith fel rhan o gasgliadau preifat a pharhaol, ac yn ddiweddar enillodd wobr ar gyfer portread yn Oriel Bortreadau Genedlaethol Llundain. Mae hi wedi cyhoeddi dau lyfr: “The Water’s Edge”portreadau a straeon am ferched a weithiodd yn nociau Lerpwl, a “Becoming” - sef monograff. Cyhoeddir ‘The Submerged’ gan Maarten Schilt yn 2011.

Untiltled from The Submerged

3 The three artists in this exhibition present works which seem at first sight very different from each other. Vicki Kerr considers a traumatic national episode from her past, analysing it and giving it theoretical and dramatic visual shape while containing the powerful emotions. Heather Phillipson’s videos combine a fertile and playful love of language with an acute visual sense; she subverts accepted meanings and familiar associations, often questioning these through disjoints between image, word and sound. While Michelle Sank’s photographic portraits appear deceptively simple, familiar, there is a sophisticated and subtle interplay of visual cues on offer as she considers personal and social identity within a landscape.

Each of these artists has a questioning approach to making art - in order to think again about a subject they have let go of preconceived ideas and entered on a journey of inquisitive inventiveness. René Descartes suggested that ‘wonder is the first of all the passions’. Wonder is that early stage of an experience when we are not sure yet what our reaction to a situation or object might be: repulsion, indifference, pleasure; those moments before an understanding is formulated which fits within an accepted framework of reference. The artists here have cultivated wonder at the world, encouraging the viewer to remain open to the exhilarating strangeness of life’s events.

Mae’r tri artist yn yr arddangosfa hon yn cyflwyno gwaith a ymddengys ar y golwg cyntaf i fod yn gwbl wahanol. Mae Vicki Kerr yn ystyried digwyddiad cenedlaethol trawmatig o’i gorffennol, yn ei ddehongli ac yn rhoi iddo siâp gweledol damcaniaethol a dramatig tra’n cynnwys yr emosiynau pwerus. Mae fideos Heather Phillipson yn cyfuno agwedd ddiddorol a chwareus tuag at iaith gyda synnwyr gweledol cryf; mae hi’n tanseilio ystyron cyffredin a chysylltiadau cyfarwydd, yn cwestiynu’r rhain yn aml trwy ddatgymalu delweddau, geiriau a sain. Tra bod portreadau ffotograffig Michelle Sank yn ymddangos yn arbennig o syml a chyfarwydd, ceir yn ei gwaith gydadwaith soffistigedig a chynnil wrth iddi ystyried hunaniaeth bersonol a chymdeithasol o fewn tirwedd.

Mae gan bob un o’r artistiaid hyn agwedd ymholgar tuag at greu celf - er mwyn ail-feddwl am bwnc penodol mae’n rhaid iddynt ryddhau syniadau eraill a chychwyn allan ar daith o ddyfeisgarwch chwilfrydig. Awgrymodd René Descartes mai ‘rhyfeddu yw’r cyntaf o’r holl angerddau’. Rhyfeddu yw’r rhan gyntaf o unrhyw brofiad pan nad ydym yn siwr eto sut y byddwn yn ymateb i sefyllfa neu wrthrych: ffieidd-dra, dihidrwydd, pleser; yr eiliadau hynny cyn y ffurfir dealltwriaeth sy’n ffitio i mewn i ryw fframwaith derbyniol. Mae’r artistiaid yn yr arddangosfa hon wedi meithrin rhyfeddu tuag at y byd gan annog y gwyliwr i aros yn feddwlagored tra’n ystyried hynodrwydd bywyd.

Eve Ropek Exhibitions curator Canolfan Celfyddydau Aberystwyth Arts Centre

canolfan y celfyddydau aberystwyth arts centre www.aberystwythartscentre.co.uk

design stephen paul dale spdale@live.com

vicki kerr

heather phillipson

michelle sank

Heather Phillipson (Still from) Rebus, or The Farewell Note that Says More than it Says

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