David Bridie and Keith Deverell

Award winning Australian musician and composer David Bridie, and artist Dr Keith Deverell who works in video, installation, sound and performance, were awarded the 2021/22 Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship. Delays due to Covid 19 meant David and Keith journeyed to the icy continent in December 2023.

Guided by the research of scientist Dr. Joel Pedro, (Lead Scientist of the Australian Antarctic Division’s Million Year Ice Core Project) David and Keith plan to create a live art performance and audio-visual projection installation which speaks to our rapidly changing climate.

The installation will involve multi-screen floor and wall projections of abstracted footage and photographs, presented in an enclosed space, with accompanying surround soundscape. The soundscape will be comprised of recorded natural sounds from Antarctica melded with composed music, spoken word pieces and songs, both new and archival. The resulting work will be a half hour audio-visual projection presented on loop, and the soundscape will be released as a CD and digital audio download album.

“I regard this as one of the most fabulous artistic opportunities I have been given and look forward to diving right in,” said Mr Bridie. “I am honoured to be awarded the Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship. I look forward to immersing myself in the sounds and stories that resonate from this place and create a piece of work that reflects the history, science, unique beauty and geography of the only continent where people never lived.”

The partnership will deliver an interesting and unique immersive experience of Antarctica and is designed to provoke thought and action in new and broad audiences.

“The Antarctic Arts Fellowship means so much to me as an artist because Antarctica is a place you think you will never get to see, just like space,” said Dr Deverell.

“Antarctica is so pivotal to the world, it is the source of so many crucial systems, oscillations and reverberations, to stand within them, experience them and interact with them is something very special.”

The Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship has been running since 1984 and is supported by the Australian Antarctic Division with additional support provided by ANAT since 2017.

Stay tuned for updates on the opening of the 2025 Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship.

ARTS FELLOWS 2023 | 2022 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017