In 2010, poet Nick Drake joined the Cape Farewell expedition to the high Arctic on a schooner carrying five marine scientists and 10 artists from North America, Europe and Russia. The expedition was wild: We got locked in ice, encountered polar bears, faced storms and took sublime walks over disappearing glaciers.
On the last evening aboard the Noorderlicht, Nick Drake read the poem he had been crafting for three weeks to the ship’s company. It beautifully narrated our shared experience, while reflecting on our place in the Arctic and how our urban lives are inadvertently threatening this pristine and wild habitat.
On his return, Nick Drake worked with digital artist Matt Clark to create a sound and interactive video installation, “High Arctic,” at the National Maritime Museum in London. Drake has published the poems he wrote about his experience in the Arctic with Cape Farewell as a book, The Farewell Glacier.
Cape Farewell