Arctic Circle Residency · Svalbard · Monuments Project

Monuments : Arctic Series

I cast vanishing ice into permanent form — preserving a moment of the human condition at the point of disappearance.

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78°N 15°E · Svalbard Archipelago
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This is not a trip. It is a chapter — fieldwork at the edge of permanence, at the fracture line between what endures and what disappears. The Arctic is where the Monuments project begins.

The Expedition

Extracting form
from a vanishing
landscape

I am travelling to the Arctic Circle on residency — into one of the last landscapes where geological time is still legible on the surface. The glaciers of Svalbard carry the memory of pressure, light, and slow catastrophe in their structure.

I am not going as a traveller. I am going to take moulds directly from ice — to work with the physical form of a landscape in the act of disappearing. The material itself becomes the record.

This is the foundation of my Monuments project: a long-form body of sculptural work investigating permanence, suspended states, and the archive held inside natural form. What begins in ice will be cast into glass — translated from the ephemeral into something that endures.

Location
Svalbard
Arctic Ocean, Norway
Project
Monuments
Long-form body of work
Collector Access
Now Open
First access list — limited
Scale
1–6 ft
Cast glacier fragments
Collector Access Now Open

Works cast from Arctic ice formations,
captured in Svalbard and translated into glass.

Each work originates from moulds taken directly from unstable Arctic ice — unrepeatable source material, translated through a process of material transformation into permanent form. Join the list for first access to the Arctic release.

  • Early access to Arctic works
  • Behind-the-scenes from the expedition
  • Limited release priority
Join for first access to the Arctic release

You're on the list — first access and expedition updates coming your way.

Direct correspondence from the field. No noise.

The Process

Ice into wax.
Wax into glass.
Form made permanent.

The transformation from glacial surface to finished sculpture is the work. Each stage is documented — mould-taking in extreme conditions, material behaviour under cold and pressure, the failures and fractures that shape the final form. This process is rare. Collectors will understand exactly what they are holding and where it came from.

01
Field — Svalbard
Working directly with glacial surfaces. Taking moulds in extreme conditions. Ice breaking, melting, instability. Close-up textures, geological character. The landscape as raw material — documented in full.
02
Ice → Wax
The glacial moulds transition to wax. The first translation. Each form carries the exact surface memory of the original ice: its cracks, its pressure marks, the grain of time written into it.
03
Wax → Glass
Wax to plaster to quartz mould. Cast in glass. The final form is permanent — a fixed record of a vanishing moment. No two works are alike. None can be repeated.
04
The Work
Editioned fragment sculptures and large-scale Monuments pieces. Entry works for collectors joining now. Anchor works as the project scales toward institutional presentation.

Captured at the point of disappearance.
Translated into permanent form.

Field Preparation

What I'm attempting
to capture

Not documentation. Not "pretty Arctic." This is an extraction — a physical act of preservation at the moment of loss. Going in with a process and an intention, not a camera.

→
Mould-taking from live glacial surfaceWorking with ice that is active — moving, cracking, melting. The mould is taken at the point of instability, not from something fixed.
→
Ice breaking / instability / failureWhen material breaks, fractures, behaves unexpectedly — that is documented too. The risk is part of the work, not edited out of it.
→
Close-up texture as visual signaturePressure marks, crystalline structure, the grain of geological time written into surface — this becomes the form of each sculpture.
→
Process, risk, transformation — as contentEvery image and dispatch from the residency will show the work: hands, material, intention. Nothing decorative. Nothing performed.
Credentials
Arctic Circle ResidencySvalbard, Norway
Arctic Circle Residency AwardRecipient
United Nations MedalInternational recognition
Monuments ProjectMajor body of work in progress
Cast glass sculpture — Alva Gallagher, existing work
The Work

Cast glass.
Fixed at the moment
of disappearance.

These works begin as direct impressions taken from unstable natural forms — pressure-bearing, temporary, already in the act of change. The glass holds what the original surface could not.

Each sculpture carries within it the exact memory of its source: the fractures, the weight, the grain of something that no longer exists in that form.

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Limited Edition · Arctic Series

Fragment
Sculptures

Works cast directly from glacial material gathered during the Svalbard residency. Each piece originates from moulds taken from unstable Arctic ice formations — source material that no longer exists in that form the moment the mould is taken.

The resulting forms are not designed. They are captured, translated, and fixed at the point of disappearance. Cast in glass, every surface carries the exact memory of the ice it came from — the pressure marks, the fractures, the grain of geological time.

Scale
1–6 ft
Material
Cast glass
Origin
Glacial fragment · Svalbard
Access
List priority
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Fragment sculpture detail — cast glass, Alva Gallagher Existing work · cast glass
First Access

Join the list.
Travel with me.

Follow the expedition as it unfolds. You'll receive dispatches directly from the field — process images, field notes, and updates as the Monuments work takes form in Svalbard.

First access to Arctic works goes to this list before any public announcement.

Thank you — your interest is registered. You'll hear from me directly before departure.