overburden and rock flour : november ‘20
November pigment contributor, artist Nina Elder writes, “I started going to the Wrangell Mountains in Alaska not just because it is beautiful, but because it is dynamic. There, glaciers give form to mountains, and mountains are molded by mining. This tension there is palpable - between change and permanence, nature and human activity. Rock flour is the grey silt that is left after a glacier retreats. This Rock Flour is from the Root Glacier, a massive piece of ice that descends the face of Mount Blackburn. The terminus of the glacier is at once playful and ominous - rocks plop into the lake, silty stretches feel like beaches.
‘Overburden’ is the term for the material that must be removed from a mine so that the miners can access the mineral deposit. It is piled up and discarded. This overburden comes from nearby the Root Glacier.
contributor : nina elder
Artist and researcher Nina Elder creates projects that reveal humanity’s dependence on and interruption of the natural world. Her work takes many forms, including drawings, performative lectures, pedagogy and critical writing, long term community-based projects, and public art.
Photo by Nina Elder