Go With The Floe

So you think it’s cold outside? Victoria Pearson has journeyed across the North Atlantic Ocean to Iceland to bring her collection of photographs, currently at the O3 Gallery, to us here in chilly Oxford.

Whether warmed by the Gulf Stream of colour that leaps from the picture plane amid this predominately magnificently monotone exhibition, or by the raw talent of this self-taught artist, one thing is for sure, this exhibition will leave you with a feeling of breathlessness and a golden glow inside.

Pearson possesses a love of the land and sea that is quite apparent in her delicate, documented depictions of this hostile, volatile, volcanically and geologically active land.

While waterfalls, glacial rivers and mountainous plateaus dominate the dramatic natural visuals on display, the spellbinding scenes are accompanied by tiny traces of human activity, all of which serve to inform the viewer of the kind of country Iceland is.

On entering the gallery and gazing at the first few works there is an initial feeling of an invitation to the post-holiday home of a close friend, who instead of presenting a laptop of small scale, screen-smudged images, had instead proudly framed up some holiday snaps.

However, it’s the existence of the compositional pathways that lead the viewer into the images, the intrinsic understanding of the awe that the subject inspires, the use of scale, the respect of the grandeur and elegance of, and commanded by, the landscape that differentiates the collection from that of a hobbyist National Geographic subscriber.

Veiled layers of water and time build up to create a truly spectacular body of works, each one encapsulating a transient moment in time, yet captured by the camera forever.

It is easy to forget oneself amid this largely untainted, clean, fresh, wonderous world; and at times, even harder to imagine that this is a landmass for humans.

Gazing at these vast, icy, seemingly inhabitable scenes where time appears to stand still, where landscapes lie unchanged for centuries, and even a notion of scale is simply impossible to grasp, it is difficult to digest the fact that Iceland has become one of the wealthiest and most developed nations in the world.

A distinct and quite frightening feeling of who/where/when emanates from works such as Vik, a photograph in which an isolated building, a speck of human existence, is dwarfed by its landscape, lonely, lost and isolated by the thick blanket of white it soundly sits in.

Juxtaposed next to the gorgeous green of the secret space depicted in Skogarfos Golden Circle these two works, with their entirely different landscapes, posses an immense value entirely unique to nature, and subtly captured by Pearson.

Pearson’s exhibition is an invitation to see sights that most will never see, and even fewer will truly feel.

The O3 Gallery feels like the perfect exhibition space for these works as they hang against the thick, grey, stone walls. Having walked around the gallery many times, never before have I had to use the handrail to steady myself before the dramatic beauty of that which adorns the walls and, quite literally, moves me.

Pearson comments: “These are meant to be beautiful images, ones with which people can live and also identify. They are snapshots of places in your mind brought to life”.

It is impossible not to take your time as you pick your way up, down, and around the gallery space on your Icelandic excursion; feeling the almost tangible cool air and water droplets on your skin as you carefully orienteer around a precariously alien landscape.

This exhibition closes on Sunday, visit it; take time to lose yourself, reflect, marvel, question your existence, lay yourself bare to the forces of nature.

Victoria Pearson’s exhibition at the O3 Gallery continues until Sunday O3 Gallery, Oxford Castle, OX1 1AY info@o3gallery.co.uk o3gallery.co.uk 01865 246 131 12pm–5pm Tuesday-Friday 11am–4pm Saturday and Sunday O3 Gallery, presented by Oxford Castle Ltd, was founded in partnership with OVADA.