set in the swiss highlands, douglas mandry’s sculptural installation explores melting glaciers

‘gravity flow’ by douglas mandry 

Artist and photographer Douglas Mandry’s latest work, ‘Gravity Flow’, pushes his artistic expression into a new medium. Developed as a public installation displayed in Swiss nature, the project is meant to address the urging topic of climate change and its impact on local glaciers, which are visibly receding from melting. ‘Gravity Flow’ is a series of five sculptures – made of recycled glass – depicting a representation and exploration of glaciers, questioning how humans perceive and interact with their natural surroundings. By representing glaciers, Mandry strikingly transmits a time-sensitive message about the unprecedented rate at which climate change occurs and its consequences.

Check out the Douglas Mandry x BALLY – DAAily bar at Milan Design Week 2022 to learn more about the artist’s exploration of climate change.

all images © Douglas Mandry Studio (unless stated otherwise) 

studying the shape of glacier mills 

When asked about the concept behind his project, Mandry comments: ‘The idea came during intense research along with the ETH glaciology research group. I came across this term, ‘gravity flow,’ which was related to the phenomenon of ice being carved by the flow of water underneath glacial ice. The idea of perpetual motion in something that we experience as being very still – the glacier – stroke me.’ The sculptures, therefore, reproduce the contours of cavities found beneath the surface of glaciers. These mills are formed by meltwater streaming downwards, gradually carving hollow spaces within the ice – the result of accelerating climate change.

To study the shape of these cavities, the artist joined ETH’s Glaciology department Professor, Daniel Farinotti, on an expedition to the Rhône glacier in Switzerland. By introducing a 3D scanner into the shafts, the researchers gathered the necessary data to create a digital model of several mills that inspired the shape of the final artworks. 

Douglas Mandry | image © Philipp Rupp

depiciting ambiguous qualities of ice using recycled glass 

Mandry chose recycled glass for his sculptures to express the ever-changing state of matter and generate an upside-down, positive copy of the glacier mills model. Working with a Swiss glass artisan, he opted for this material to address the need to think more sustainably and the fragility of materiality.

‘The handwork of glass is a thousand-year-old cultural legacy. It has gone through time and technological evolution, yet is still used very much like in the past, except, of course, for its industrial use. Glass is omnipresent in our everyday life, so much so that we don’t even notice it. It is also an important actor in the photographic medium; think of lenses, original glass plates, etc. But most of all, its physical state is ambiguous since it is between solid and liquid. Moreover, it can be fragile but extremely dense. All those sometimes paradoxical qualities brought me to experiment with glass and come up with large, heavy sculptures, based on an immaterial visualization of a volatile natural phenomenon,’ explains the artist.

Gravity Flow will be exhibited outdoors on the Muottaz Muragl peak in the Swiss mountains of Engadine for an entire year, from August 2022. By presenting his work in a natural setting, Mandry not only exposes it to the changing meteorological conditions that might alter its appearance but also invites visitors to experience art in the open air.

‘As with a glacial erratic, the encounter with this translucent form, similar to a block of ice, has something surreal that awakens our curiosity and encourages us to reflect on our environment, on the current situation of glaciers, and what actually happens below their surfaces. The sculptures, from glacial mills coming originally from the Rhône glacier, are intentionally placed in another glacial area of Switzerland. Like boulders, erratic stones transported by the melting ice over thousands of years, the sculptures underline this slow shift from one place to another and crystalise them into one moment in time,’ he concludes. five sculptural pieces made of recycled glass

close-up shot of the recycled glass texture

project info:

name: Gravity Flow 

location: Muottaz Muragl peak, Engadine, Switzerland 

design: Douglas Mandry Studio 

exhibiting dates: August 2022 – August 2023