Archipelago was filmed in the fragmented topography of Svalbard in the Arctic Circle. The work features a continuous camera travelling over the Fjortende julibukta glacier, complemented by graphic elements created through photogrammetry. Using a drone, segments of the glacier were scanned and transformed into 3D models. Various forms of representation start to overlap in the video, culminating in a moment of information loss due to saturation.

 

In this series and other pieces stemming from the Arctic expedition, Rupcich raises questions about the development of image repositories originating from distant locations—archives that have not only broadened our comprehension of the world but have also reshaped our perception of a reality already heavily mediated and hyper-post-produced.

The central objective of Archipelago, from its boundaries with abstraction, is to focus on the problem of the “objectification” of the world through digital tools, questioning the technical capabilities of translating the sublime into image and data.

Installation views at “Archipiélago”, solo exhibition at Galería Gabriela Mistral, Santiago de Chile, 2022

–