Uncanny Ice

FILM & PHOTOS

ELIAS MARKKULA

Uncanny Ice by Dylan Katz

uncanny

/ʌnˈkani/

adjective

Strange or mysterious, especially in an unsettling way

Uncanny Ice is an invitation to contemplate the relationship between man and nature, an exploration into the harmonious dichotomy of two materials – glass and ice.

-Dylan Katz

FILM BY: ELIAS MARKKULA // AUDIO FIELD RECORDING: VELI-MATTI RINTALA // COMPOSER & SOUND MIX: JYRI PIRINEN // COLOR GRADE: ATTE HEINONEN // TITLE DESIGN: JANNE GAMMELIN

“Glass doesn't deteriorate with time. It doesn't rust. It doesn't corrode. It just exists. It's kind of this almost eternal material which is so completely the opposite from ice. Even the most stable ice.”

LAKE NÄSIJÄRVI, 7.53PM, MARCH 6th, 2024
HYDROPHONE AUDIO RECORDING BY VELI-MATTI RINTALA

11.28 min

“It's a hard way to make a living. And this knowledge is dying because there's not enough people studying, there's not enough people learning it. And most of the people who do start down the path of learning it don't continue into a professional career. So in the same way that the ice is disappearing. The glass is also disappearing.”

“Working with the lake ice… It really started just from admiring this natural beauty. There wasn't much of an intention to say something. “

“It was more of just a pure kind of, God that's gorgeous”

“The ice blocks are so beautiful and there's so much going on there. The forms, the patterns, the textures, the optics of it. The way that the light moves through it. It really lends itself to glass, actually.”

“That object couldn't have formed without the whole lake freezing. So it's just a part of this greater whole. And I find that very interesting. And I want to evoke that with the sculptures. That's actually why I started breaking them with the axe, as to create that feeling in them that it's not just an individual sculpture, that it's a small part of a greater whole”

“My pieces are very much an artist's interpretation of the ice. It's not an exact copy, because that would essentially be impossible, but also, I think that it's not as interesting. “

“The ice is so amazing. The way it forms. Often it will it will freeze and then break apart and then refreeze. And that's when you get some of the best patterns.

“Use the glass to talk about the ice. That's more interesting. You have ice that's melting and disappearing and glass that is enduring forever.”

“Hidden inside of each piece there's layers of meaning. What does the ice actually contain? Is it is it just water that's frozen? But it's not. For example if the Greenland ice sheet goes away, we're going to lose a whole lot more than than just some frozen water. “

“Our whole society is actually locked into that ice.”