An artist bound for wilds of the Antarctic

West Cork-based Australian painter and sculptor, John Kelly, is sailing for two weeks from Hobart, in Australia, across the Southern Ocean for a three-month art residency in the Antarctic. His work there will be “a direct painterly response to the unique, wild and beautiful Antarctic landscape.”

Best-known for his paintings, and large sculptures inspired by William Dobell’s papier maché cows, which were used as camouflage in Australian air bases in World War 11, Kelly is the 2013 Australian Antarctic Arts Fellow. Each year, the fellowship is awarded to an artist to convey a non-scientific perspective on Antarctica.

Kelly, who is on board the Aurora Australis, is making a voyage “across what is probably the most treacherous ocean in the world. It’s possibly the only artist’s residency where you’re given a survival suit at the beginning of it. The ship is an ice-breaker, which means its hull is filled with concrete with holes in it, to allow the water to slosh across it horizontally. There’s no easy way back if something goes wrong.”