Glacier Elergy: A Letter to the Future

An essay featured in the book: Jaanika Peerna, Glacier Elergies, Ed. Zoe Foster. 2022. MIT Press.

Much of Jaanika Peerna's recent work is a lament to glaciers and natural ice. Her ongoing project Glacier Elegyforms the central core of this publication. The book presents an in-depth look at this iconic work, through essays, images of works and performances, and the artist's own words. In doing so, it shows how a contemporary artist in her prime addresses the climate emergency.

The book touches on ecological grief and looks at how Peerna and other key contemporary artists have used the subject of ice to highlight the global climate emergency. It includes essays by Robert MacFarlane, Janet Passehl, Celina Jeffery, and an interview by Joana P. R. Neves, situating Peerna's work and envisioning how creative acts imagine ecological relations in the face of rapidly changing climates and environments, giving voice to the difficult emotions of fear, trauma, grief, and mourning. Peerna's work offers us a way through.