NOT A LIFESAVING DEVICE

The photographs and videoart for the art installation NOT A LIFESAVING DEVICE were created during the Arctic Circle Artist Residency in Svalbard in December 2023, aboard the sailing vessel Antigua. NOT A LIFESAVING DEVICE operates on several levels.

In the context of global warming, non-native species are increasingly moving into fragile ecosystems, symbolized here by the flamingo, an object radically out of place in the Arctic.

At the same time, the inflatable pool float references the rapid growth of tourism in polar regions, where leisure increasingly overlaps with vulnerability. The title, printed directly on the object itself by the manufacturer of the pool float, functions as a literal safety warning and a symbolic statement. In moments of real emergency, this device offers no protection. It reflects the broader condition of the Arctic and, by extension, our globe, an environment under visible distress while the tools we bring with us are insufficient, symbolic, or purely cosmetic. There is no easy rescue, and no single solution.

Boris Schaarschmidt is a German-born, internationally acclaimed filmmaker and professor of Film and Television. Throughout his career, he has been drawn to remote, seemingly inhospitable landscapes - places where nature reveals both its austere beauty and its profound vulnerability.

Over the past decade, this fascination has led him to a series of artist residencies that brought him into close contact with the relentless forces of the natural world. From Iceland and Greenland to the Faroe Islands and Lapland, Schaarschmidt has sought out environments that resist comfort and demand attention.

In 2023, he was selected for the highly competitive Arctic Circle Artist Residency, spending nearly three weeks sailing the Arctic aboard the tall ship Antigua. Immersed in a region shaped by ice, silence, and accelerating change, Schaarschmidt confronted a striking contrast: his hometown of Los Angeles - a desert city sustained by imported water, lush lawns, and shimmering pools - set against the fragile reality of melting Arctic glaciers.

It was within this tension that NOT A LIFESAVING DEVICE was conceived, a work born at the intersection of abundance and loss, distance and responsibility, observation and unease. No AI was used in the creation of this work.

Please also watch this short four-minute film created during the expeditionary residency. 79° North offers an impression of the residency itself and the remoteness and harsh conditions of Svalbard and Jan Mayen.