La Banquise

"When I was younger, I couldn't understand how to deal with the paradoxes in my work. But as Etel Adnan says: we are a multitude, and we are multiple. One thing cannot exist without the other. Everything acquired its meaning when I accepted placing those paradoxes side by side." Sophie Whettnall, 2023.

La banquise [the ice floe] is an immersive installation consisting of 34 large elements, made from scrap materials found in a polyurethane foam factory. The pink shapes, which look like giant marshmallows, make up an arctic scene studded with icebergs. You can sit or lie on the soft structures or simply surrender to them. Their fluffy texture makes a stark contrast with the cold and jagged nature of real icebergs. Different shades of pink create luminous colour transitions, resulting in a delicate dreamscape that looks like it was sculpted by the light itself.

Although its title and shapes conjure up the polar region, La banquise is primarily a mental landscape. The work points to Sophie Whettnall's childhood memories of the summers she spent in Sweden, lying on moss-covered rocks. The contradiction between these warm memories of nature and the frosty universe evoked by the work only reinforces its symbolic meaning. Because today, the arctic expanse is under dire threat from climate change. The choice of the colour pink reflects the artist's desire to soften this reality and make it more accessible, without downplaying the severity of the situation.