The Ice Bear Project

Artist Mark Coreth sculpts animals. To create ice bear, he cast the form of a polar bear skeleton and submerged it in a tank of water. This was frozen. With razor sharp tools, he carved out the bear.

Now the work is melting, in Trafalgar Square. The thickness of the block was that of the ice in the Arctic. The piece represents mankind's acceleration of global warming and illustrates how the bear's habitat is disappearing.

When I saw the bear today, I was a little surprised that people were picking away at the ice. However, Mark was delighted and explained to me, "When people touch the ice with their hands, they also become the sculptors of the work." People accelerating the melting of the simulation, as we cause the global warming which melts the Arctic, adds poignancy to the work.

Photograph: mshdesign

Wind Knitting Factory, 2009

Merel Karhof's machine is wind powered and knits scarves. Good idea if it is very windy.

The Idea of a Tree, 2008

Katharina Mischer and Thomas Traxler's machine makes lampshades and is powered by the sun. The thread is pulled through ink, glue, and wrapped round a mold. The sun's strength controls the speed of mold rotation. The thread varies in colour intensity, depending on how long it spent in the ink. At the end of a day, the lamp shade can be 'harvested' and the colour variation gives a graphic representation of the days weather.

Big Dipper, 2007

Sarah van Gameren's machine makes candles. This making is also a performance, advertising the candles and giving them a story.

Sleeping Beauty, 2006

This spider-like light knits it's own lampshade, when the light is on. The machine runs slowly, so it hardly seems to be knitting. The shade takes several months to be completed.