Signs of Change 2016

Signs of Change 2016 represents over 10 years of outdoor installations of words made from ice, which melt in the landscape as a poetic gesture towards the ephemerality of all nature. Like headlines conjured in a dream, they also herald in the new Anthropocene epoch, alerting us to the impact of humans on the environment. Unlike the loaded headlines in today’s media, the anticipated melting of the word acknowledges the absence of the word as it relates to the land. They act more like questions than certainty. They ask: what is the true cost of this View, who owns this Resource and what is your Legacy?

Dextras’ large text projects have pioneered the technique of using local water from rivers and lakes into freestanding letters. Her approach is in sharp contrast to the machine made blocks conventionally used by ice carvers. She instead travels to wintery regions where she constructs wooden moulds, fills them with water on site with the use of pumps and then leaves them outside to freeze over time. Once the forms are removed, the ice cast is exposed to the elements, where it will eventually change from a solid state to liquid. As these projects are often done in remote areas she also has created smaller ice texts that have been installed in urban areas.

These projects begin as direct engagement with local communities but being ephemeral they live on only as photographs. Like signs with nothing to sell, they hope to gain your attention for only a brief moment of reflection on the natural world. View more projects in the Social Typography Section.01 Dextras Consume 02 Dextras Desire 03 Dextras Flux 04 Dextras Globalization 05 Dextras Legacy 06 Dextras Logic 07 Dextras Resource 08 Dextras View