Jaanika Peerna’s Glacier Elegy performance series started in 2017 and is ongoing. In the center of the performance is a melting block of ice. During the performances the artist has this quiet question in her mind: “What would I do with the last piece of ice left on Earth?”  Each time the unfolding participatory performance takes on somewhat different paths. What exactly happens is dependent on the participants and the energy exchanged between the artist and participants, the site, and time.

Not unlike solving our current environmental crises, nature has its rules and needs, and we have our choices on how to act.

Peerna’s Glacier Elegy is a performance series that connects ideas of elegy to extinction. The series explores the connection between the melting of glaciers and the inevitable demise of the ecosystems associated with them as a means of directing us back to a greater understanding of the relationship between aesthetics and the social.
Photo: Hirshhorn Museum, Washinton D.C, USA