The Liverpool Coast

In March 2009, writer David Lan joins artist David Buckland and cameraman Matt Wainwright on a remarkable dog team expedition to traverse the Liverpool Coast, East Greenland, as part of Cape Farewell’s programme of activity with the Tate and the Sublime Project.

Why the Liverpool Coast?

The east coast of Greenland was first charted by the Reverend Scorsby in the 1820s. He charted the coast north of Scorsby Sund in remarkable detail naming each headland, bay and island after well know Liverpool figures. He changed the physical ‘objective’ landscape into a personal one of nostalgia and in doing so made it heroic. The subsequent annexation of Greenland by Denmark changed this act of poetry and supplanted it with a simpler ‘matter of fact’ chart whose prime aim was navigation and pragmatism.

The significance of this wild and isolated coast is now up for review as in many ways it is now a global epi-centre of climate change.

In September 2007 Cape Farewell attempted to make landfall on this coast but were beaten back by sea ice and horrendous weather patterns, it was a heroic effort which nearly ended up being entrapped in ice.  The Liverpool Coast remained elusive despite additional efforts and the expedition eventually landed on the coast of Greenland some 150 miles further south.  In 2009, David Buckland, David Lan and Matt Wainwright will travel together with an Inuit guide and dog sleighs north from Constable Point traveling along the Sea Ice of the Liverpool Coast in the High Arctic.

Follow David Lan and David Buckland live from the Arctic as we experiment with tracking devices ›

“The young Reverent Scorsby couldn’t have predicted this as he named this coast 180 years ago – an age when our atmosphere was unpolluted and climate change was not anywhere near anyone’s imagination. What he did imaging from this frozen coastline was the safety and warmth of home – people he revered and whose names he brought to these harsh rocks. He had the need to imaging this coast subjectively, a place he imbued with emotion and now, 180 years later, it is time to revisit this place subjectively again. It is the front line of climate change; the geological strategic command centre on our emotional climate radar and it deserves to be an artwork. The Liverpool Coast”.
David Buckland, Artist

Following the expedition, artworks will be developed as part of our ongoing collaboration with the Tate Sublime project.