Vote for Margaret Sharrow to create ULTIMATE STILLNESS at the North Pole!

On the AUL ferry, Hamborgerland, Greenland. Image copyright Margaret Sharrow, 2008.

The north pole is one of only two places on earth where the world stops turning. Can you feel the stillness?

My name is Margaret Sharrow, I'm an artist, and I'm so excited about my plans to share standing atop the world in a moment of silence. I'd invite others on the expedition to stand round the pole, dressed in red and bearing portraits of people who have brought peace and silence to the world. One by one they will stand on the pole, feeling inner and outer stillness as the world turns around them. They will also pass round the circle a plate of Italian crystal containing gold filaments, a work of art currently circling the world from one artist to another via FRAGILE - global performance chain journey.

Vote for me and I'll take dramatic photos of that event and everything else on the voyage, using digital and antique cameras. You'll see videos and share my stories and interviews on the blog. And I'll give you other ways to participate: I'll need nominations of people who've nurtured silence, to have their portraits carried to the pole. I'll organise silent circles round the world to experience stillness at the very moment the expedition reaches the pole. There will be a photo-book, and an exhibition that will tour the globe. 

I've been in cold places all my life: born in Buffalo, New York (butt of American snow jokes) I drifted to Canada then Britain, traveling extensively in the remote north Atlantic. Best moment? A cherry red Air Greenland helicopter taking off from Qaqortoq, roaring rotors pulsing in my sternum, three cameras juggled on my lap, my tear-filling eyes stretched wide, not missing anything. The chopper rose, perspectives shifted, the world turned inside out. The harbour and jewel-coloured rows of Danish houses lining the bowl of hills. Sea glowing blue-green spotted with brilliant white icebergs running out of the fjords like a stately crowd dispersing. Jagged edges of fairy-pointed mountains against the horizon, pressing close as children at a sweet shop window. Sailing free in the skies until the stewardess, having handed round mints, sat opposite me. Oblivious to her daily tour of paradise, she happily leafed through a magazine. 

Vote for me here! http://www.blogyourwaytothenorthpole.com/entries/166

There's more on my other blog margaretsharrow.blogspot.com, margaretsharrow.weebly.com/greenland.html and www.fragile-global-performance.net. Thanks for reading, and thanks for voting!

more about why I want to go to the North Pole     more about Greenland     more about my art & photography

On the Up: Helicopters

Nanortalik airport

OK, this is one of those dumb journalistic catchy titles. But it got you reading, didn't it?

It would be a lie to say that Greenland was my first experience riding in a helicopter. In fact, I once rode in a charity helicopter ride over the small Welsh town where I live, accompanied by one of the local entrepreneurs and the Cambrian News photographer.

It was all very exciting boarding the helicopter - I felt like a shuttle diplomat, ducking my head under the whirling blades, seeing the grass blow down and feeling the wind as the machine idled. Once on board the four seater, we were strapped into black leather seats, and the roar increased as we prepared to take off.

What happened next I was totally unprepared for.

As we rose, my familiar world of buildings and trees, playing fields and river turned inside out as they changed from normal ground level perspective to the aerial view. There is no other way I can describe that sensation. It was as if I had been worming along, only seeing the sides of things, when here all along was this other view of the familiar, from above, of which I was intellectually aware, of course, but of which I had no true understanding until that moment.

It was as if I had suddenly switched from being myself, to being my higher self.

I emerged from that quick tour of the familiar hills and valley, roads and farms, feeling as if a profound transformation had occurred. Quick eye contact with Entrepreneur, as we again played diplomats, assured me that he had felt the change as well.

That experience, so apparently removed from Greenland, surfaced in my mind again as soon as I realised that it was no longer possible to reach Nanortalik by scheduled coastal ferry, and that I would have to book a helicopter flight. What a hardship! Actually the flights are quite reasonably priced. However, if you live there it seems hard that flying, so susceptible to the vagaries of the weather, is the only way to get around. And suppose you are carrying something substantial, say, sculpture... In fact, on my first Greenlandic helicopter flight, part of the cargo was a massive Greenlandic husky, who had been patiently stowed in the front with my large wheelie luggage. (Fortunately the only food in that bag was firmly sealed in tins.)

Once in Qaqortoq, it became imperative to find the airport to reconfirm my flight. This, in true time-honoured fashion, I did entirely by accident. I was out exploring, found a run-down children's playground area (bouncy animals on springs with the handles ripped off, a graffittied wendy house, lots of litter) on a small rise. And from my vantage point: behold! The airport! Actually it was just across the road, but the rise made it easier not to mistake it for some offices. In I went, and confirmed my flight, face to face, in English, in ten seconds, with a rather surprised looking Air Greenland employee. Obviously most people don't bother to confirm these chopper flights - in a way, they are the bus service of the far south. If the chopper is delayed (and there is just one for Air Greenland, any other chopper is a charter flight), it will come along, when it comes, after it has shuttled from Narsarssuaq and Narsaq, or possibly Aliutsup Paa.

Finally I was ready to leave Qaqortoq (that makes it sound as if I couldn't wait to leave, which was anything but the truth). My new friend from the hostel and I had agreed to share a taxi, which was good, because otherwise I would have attempted to walk down and uphill dragging my wheelie luggage and carrying an unfeasible number of cameras in my rucksack.

Off we went, in a bit of a flurry. She was worried that we would be too late to check in. On arrival we found that we were... having to wait four hours, as the weather at Narsarssuaq was bad, and things were delayed.

to be continued...

end of trip summary e-mail

Arrived safely in Narsarsuaq on Saturday, and now am checked in to the flight to Copenhagen which doesn't leave for a few hours and it is sunny so hopefully plane will arrive & take off again on time.

Many more wonderful adventures here in Narsarsuaq, but will tell more later. Went on another wonderful 5 star walk yesterday. The big surprise here has been the fall colour, really bright. I didn't think there were any trees in Greenland, apart from a small forest tucked behind Nanortalik. But there are loads of shrub sized trees here, and a few real ones - they have an arboretum with trees with plaques saying they are from Colorado, Alaska, Kamchatka, etc.

Have met people and made not just contacts, but friends. It is surprising where artists and photographers turn up...

Well, I will be sorry to leave here but I am looking forward to term starting, and to getting going on the 10,000+ pictures I've accumulated. I have only 2 rolls of 35mm left, absolutely no more digital memory tucked away ANYWHERE, though I do have quite a bit of 120 film left, mainly because of problem with spool on the 1910 Kodak which I couldn't use, though I took Chris' large camera to some surprising places, including Year 7A at Nanortalik school, who loved looking through the viewfinder.

The best hostel was definitely Nanortalik, but everywhere I stayed was good, even the couchette on the ferry.

I've been all round the southern half of this country, by jumbo jet, Dash-7, 25 seater helicopter, ferry, bus, taxi, and even pickup trucks, and walking, walking, walking... Seen glaciers and icebergs (white ones, blue ones, and dirty dying ones), museums, artists' studios, the insides of peoples' homes, internet cafes with shouting boys, schools, a baby baptised in church, a photo of a 90 year old dying woman clinging to life, children, old people, Danes, Greenlanders, tourists from Italy and Argentina, seals, crows, gulls, trees draped over rocks, arctic cotton grass and bluebells, eaten wild crowberries and reindeer lasagne, been warm enough to run out in a t-shirt and flip flops to take a photo, cold enough to wear all my thermals, but usually OK without them. It's been a fantastic trip.

Margaret's itinerary

This page will contain a list of places I went to.

For starters, the bare bones:

London - Copenhagen (overnight in airport) - Kangerlussuaq (transfer) - Nuuk (4 nights) - coastal ferry (4 nights) landing at: Sisimiut - Aasiaat - Ilulissat - Aasiaat - Sisimiut - Nuuk - Qaqortoq (3 nights) - Nanortalik (7 nights) - Narsarssuaq (4 nights) - Copenhagen (overnight in airport) - London

Flights were with Sterling Air (defunct the month after I returned) and Air Greenland.

More details:

• To London by National Express coach.
• Flew from Gatwick (home of the charter airlines).
• Decided ahead of time to spend the night in Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport, due to late arrival time / early morning departure.
• Flew Air Greenland to Kangerlussuaq. Nuuk, although the capital, does not have enough flat land for an airstrip large enough to accommodate jumbo jets, so international flights arrive at Kangerlussuaq, a former US air base at the head of a long fjord about an hour's flight north of Nuuk. My transfer to Dash-7 plane lasted less than an hour.
• Arrived at Nuuk airport a little after noon and caught the city bus to the tourist information centre, near the colonial harbour. Got a booking for a bed and breakfast in one of the suburbs, and ended up getting a lift there in the tourist office pickup truck. Four nights in Nuuk. Activities included walking, forward trip planning, bus tour, visiting Nuuk's beaches, cemeteries, harbours, shopping, cafes, arts centre. Oh, and photography!
• Taxi to harbour to catch AUL coastal ferry. 4 nights on ferry in couchette (4 beds in shared room).

more to come...