Anne Noble

Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1954

White Lantern

  • 2004
  • Photograph
  • Purchased, 2006
  • 1075 x 1270 x 30mm
  • 2006/024

Antarctica looms large – both on our planet and in human imagination – and it’s a place Anne Noble has researched and visited since 2001. Rather than repeating already-photographed views, she seeks out different images that hint at how we think about the least populated continent on Earth. She was intrigued by a 17th-century theory proposed by the astronomer Edmond Halley that the Earth is hollow rather than solid, with a portal to its interior located somewhere in Antarctica. Presumably, because this place could never be found, its existence could never be disproved. With its air valve positioned over the South Pole, this blow-up globe is a perfect illustration of the mystery – and fragility – of Antarctica.

(Absence, May 2023)

Exhibition History

earlier labels about this work
  • A blow-up globe of the earth emerges from a darkened background focusing on the Antarctic continent with the air valve positioned on the Southern Pole. This is one of Noble's iconic Antarctic works and is used as the frontispiece for the recent 'Contemporary New Zealand Photographers' publication. A major theme in Noble's recent body of Antarctic work is examining how Antarctica is represented and defined beyond the continent itself.