Every year I do an earthwork — more accurately, a snowwork — on a frozen lakebed flat and white like a canvas (what artist could resist) . This year the season started out unseasonably warm (no ice or snow), and then went directly to -30 degrees.

I labored all day on the above work, and by the time it was ready to photograph it was sunset (often the case) and my phone battery was dying. So, running back and forth trying to get enough juice to take some shots before the light faded, I slipped on the ice and bonked my head, and while taking the photos the temperature and wind chill gave me frostbite. “Suffer for my art” and all that.

All the works are quite large, usually over 30’. They never last more than a few hours post-completion.

Because ice crystals are discrete units, like pixels comprising a jpeg, the work is pseudodigital. It was only experienced by one person IRL. Because the work is ephemeral, the documentation is the art. The photos have a very interesting ambiguous depth to them, appearing as both flat abstract images but also, with closer viewing, a deep spatial perspective.

More land art works by K.I.A. HERE. Contact for details.

Earlier years — see fully at Weatherworks: