Antarctica is a place of intrigue—a remote, unknown, isolated and unforgiving continent that inspires creativity. An immense expanse of white stretching relentlessly to the horizon, void of permanent human settlement—it provides a tabula rasa primed for tales of wilderness and adventure, as well as stories of survival and human endurance pushed beyond limits. It is also a place where the climate crisis is starkly visible, and the future is envisioned as bleak and unliveable.
Antarctica offers the perfect setting for a compelling creative narrative. A landscape of extremes, it is shrouded in perpetual darkness in winter and bathed in continuous light throughout summer. Its pristine white, thick packed-ice impenetrable and yet extremely fragile; under threat, on the verge of dissolving.
In partnership with the School of Media and Communication and the non/fictionLab, writers Melody Ellis, Eloise Grills, Alice King, Gareth Morgan and Dior Angel Sutherland were invited to respond to Creative Antarctica: Australian Artists and Writers in the Far South. Please join us on Friday 1 May at 2pm in the ‘Ice Salon’ reading room when they will read excerpts from their creative writing exhibition responses.
This event is presented by RMIT Galleries for RMIT University, as part of the exhibition Creative Antarctica: Australian Artists and Writers in the Far South.
Image credit: Installation view of the ‘Ice Salon’ reading room, featuring 'Antarctica in Fiction' by Elizabeth Leane as part of Creative Antarctica: Australian Artists and Writers in the Far South, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2026. Photo courtesy of RMIT Galleries.
