Out of whose womb came the ice

Out of whose womb came the ice creates a sonic

and visual glimpse of a segment of the Imperial

Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–1917). In

August 1914, at the onset of World War I, polar

explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton gathered a crew of

27 men and set sail for the South Atlantic. They

were in pursuit of the last unclaimed prize of the

Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration: to be the

first to cross the continent by foot. Upon entering the Weddell Sea, they encountered unusually foul

weather. Weaving south through the treacherous

seas of ice, their ship, the Endurance, became

trapped only 85 miles from their destination.

After months of waiting for the ice to break,

the ship was crushed and sank, leaving the crew

stranded upon the ice floes without any means

of contacting the outside world. In pursuit of

survival, Shackleton and his crew endured 22

months traversing ice floes up the Antarctic

Peninsula. The final leg included a deadly 800-

mile open boat journey in their lifeboat, the

James Caird, in hopes of reaching South Georgia

Island. The crew was rescued on August 30, 1916;

everyone survived. Though this expedition failed,

it remains one of the most miraculous stories of

polar exploration and human survival.

Out of whose womb came the ice looks at the

expedition from the time the crew leaves port to

the trapping of the Endurance in the Weddell Sea’s

pack ice. The vocal and orchestra music focuses

on the crew’s perception of the Endurance in

relationship to their surroundings. She goes from

being simply a ship, to a lifeline and memento that

connects them to the world they left behind. Once

she sinks, they are truly left alone. The visuals and

electronics offer narrative elements drawn directly

from documents of the journey: journal entries of

the crew and images by the expedition’s official

photographer, Frank Hurley.