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You participated in the Arctic Circle Residency this summer. Could you tell us a little bit about the experience?

The Arctic Circle Residency is located upon a traditionally rigged Barquentine Tallship, which circled the high Arctic Svalbard Archipelago, an expansive landscape of glaciers, wildlife and fjords, 1,050 kilometres from the North Pole. The tour included 29 artists and 8 crew who explored a variety of terrain and locations.

Each day we would go to a new area and have the option to set out on a zodiac to a landing, two times a day. Sometimes the zodiac would take us to film an iceberg or take us through ice fields. Each landing included three guides, armed with rifles, who established a perimeter to be on the lookout for polar bears, who were plentiful.

The experience left me with a sense of peace and being a small part of a larger world. I was often left in awe of the beauty of the Arctic, such as the turquoise blue of an iceberg in a deep green ocean, against a mauve sky with indigo striped mountains behind, or the cacophony of birds filling the sky, sparkling with the reflecting 1:00 am sun, swarming their nests in the mountains. We were followed by curious seals and foxes, watched walruses resting in the sun and observed a polar bear amble across rocky terrain into the sea.

The most momentous experience, however, was the trip into the choppy Arctic Sea to the pack ice where we encountered an otherworldly space. Only 1,000 km from the north pole, it was the farthest one can go by boat. The sky and land became one misty palette and gave a sense of eternity. I had the opportunity to walk with a guide on this terrain, considering the treks of Admundson and other explorers, until he stopped us and said he heard cracking and we needed to head back to the boat.

Other significant experiences included laying on a small ice flow, while the zodiac waited a short distance away, and encountering a crashed nazi plane. It was truly an experience of discovery and adventure as well as a deepening understanding of my place in the world.

_{Adventure is just bad planning, Roald Amundsen, Charcoal, Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 95 x 140 cm, 2020  © Heather Gentleman}

What are some upcoming projects you are working on or looking forward to developing?

I’m working on two series at the moment. The first is shown in this article, called “The Five”. This work places side by side the five women artists who formed a group of the same name and the five women who were killed by Jack the Ripper.

Both groups were contemporaries, but they differed in many ways. The former group included the infamous Hilma af Klint, who chose not to marry but live with her female friend. Their liaison may have been romantic but there is little information to support it. Coming from comfortable backgrounds, these women were also able to go to art school and support themselves through their art.

The Five women who were victims of the Ripper had been married, save one, and had lived in poor conditions after leaving their partners. One was a sex worker, and the rest worked tirelessly taking in small sewing jobs and the like to sustain themselves and possibly find a doss to sleep. Many slept rough, which made them vulnerable to crime.

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