When people experience a visceral moment of contemplation about the state of our warming planet, it compels them to experience a sort of memorable geologic empathy.

I want to make something beautiful that draws people into consideration of how they relate personally to nature, to granite and to ice. I’m always experimenting with helping people get physical with these materials.

In 2018 I produced my ritual work Remember For This Stone A Colder Past. A chest of ice sat beside the granite glacial erratic and participants were invited to immerse their hands in ice and then touch this glacial stone to remind it of real cold.

This stone moved south unobserved, and it sat for tens of thousands of years without anyone recognizing that it was out of place. I want to give people a chance to pay attention to this stone and to encourage it during this warm interglacial period.

When I take this stone north to the mouth of the Arctic Ocean, I intend to stop for community events every 100 miles (160km). Participants will be invited to touch this stone as it moves north on its way home (knowing that because of climate change the next ice age won’t touch this stone for ~100,000 years).

- RYAN DEWEY

ADDITIONAL DETAILS:

Title: Remember For This Stone A Colder Past (2018)

Materials: ice, glacial boulder, ritual protocol, stainless steel box.

Description: Visitors are instructed to plunge their hands into the ice box for 30 seconds to chill their hands before touching the glacial stone so that their cold hands will remind the stone what real cold feels like. Visitors are encourage to whisper a blessing of cold to the stone. Part of solo exhibition Sowing Seeds of Discontent at Baldwin Wallace University. Viewed 43,529 times on Instagram.

Rationale: I’ve included this because it is the same stone I’ll repatriate to Canada, and this is one of the rituals that will take place in the various exhibitions and community events along the way.