“In the depths of winter, I found within me an invincible summer.” – Albert Camus
Inspired by 2015’s polar vortex, Zina Zinchik’s new series, Frozen Spring, is a solemn but optimistic reminder of the innate, immortal state of living. These photographs imply that this, somehow, is her flowers’ authentic identity – that some essential quality is preserved through their death and resurrection.
Moved by the simple, unadulterated beauty of nature, Zinchik cites Monet’s waterlilies as a large influence for her work. The viewer will also be reminded of the keen, scientific eye of Weston and the vibrancy of O’Keefe, but by locating her subjects at a distance, and under a frigid distortion of ice, these experiences become specifically located in a decidedly different climate. On the surface, these sensitive images seem to be of flowers, but a steady gaze reveals that the ice is the focus, stretching out with crystalline fingers beyond the petals it surrounds.
Frozen spring
by Vitaly Rozman
Hello spring? It is the first of March today on the calendar, but not in reality.
Every year winter is getting more and more severe. And it seems like nobody cares about this anomaly. Here and there we hear lonely voices of ecological organizations and activists, which try to attract society’s attention to the problems, which are getting bigger and bigger each year. Huge ecological catastrophes, “junk continent” in the ocean, melting ice in the Arctics and so on. Nobody cares about how big and massive those problems are. People are in a rush and most of the time don’t think further from their own needs. Have you ever thought of how big the catastrophe size is? What the consequences could be?
Remember, last year New Yorkers kept saying: "this is the coldest winter, I've ever experienced in New York." This year I kept hearing the same. And you know what?! This year the Hudson River is frozen...the first time in many years.
I had conversation a couple days ago with one lady from the UN. And the thing she told me keeps coming back to me. "We think we can bare all those car exhausts plastic bags, trash and everything else. But we don't realize, that planet Earth cannot."
And this is so true. We don't realize there's a catastrophe out there at our very door. In most cases we just don't care. About all the melting ice, rising oceans, ozone holes, disappearing species, and the forests being destroyed.
How many people have heard about Greenland's record high ice melting last year? How many people have heard about the Gulf-stream temperature drop? How many people think about the constantly growing “junk-continent” in the Pacific Ocean?
But a huge amount of people discuss the stupid #dress or Oscar, or whatever else.
Humanity suffers from a dangerous disease called "carelessness" and we don't even imagine, the consequences it can lead us to.
This artwork is aimed to show you, there are things in this world, which are really valuable, and worth thinking and caring about it. It is designed to attract your attention to nature in its beauty. Please stop for a minute and think about it. Please take care. The next time you ask for a plastic bag or throw the recyclables into the trash. Both voices and thoughts are important- for yourselves, for your children, and for our Planet.
I have those thoughts visiting me from time to time. They scare me. This one particular thought keeps scaring me - is that “Spring” will never come...because it’s frozen.
