David Ellingsen: Weather Patterns is an immersive projection installation that visualizes milestones in climate breakdown.

Everyday, Ellingsen makes a single photograph in nature using a consistent set of parameters including location, focal length, aperture and framing- resulting in a sizeable archive of images. At a later date, when he becomes aware of a new record breaking in climate degradation, he draws upon this archive to create large-scale composite works. While some individual days appear as a milestone, most of these emblematic compilations combine many days into a single work, enabling the viewer to see wide swaths of historical records at a glance. Most of the final works take weeks, months or up to a year to complete.

As climate breakdown advances, and records are broken with increasing regularity, the construction of a photo-series forces one to bear conscious witness to the changes occurring. This on-going diary enables a process of both witness and memorial to the slow violence being imposed on the natural world.

The exhibition will include a sound element produced by Canadian sound artist Jamie Drouin, a background soundtrack of water elements, broken, mixed and distorted, simultaneously calms and disturbs the viewer. By combining light projections and carbon offsets, Ellingsen anticipates that this exhibition will be carbon-neutral.

Canadian photographer David Ellingsen began his career as a freelance assignment photographer working with clients including the New York Times Magazine, Business Development Bank of Canada, Canadian Medical Association, Oprah Winfrey Network, People magazine and CBC Radio Canada. Simultaneously, he was exhibiting his personal work in public and private galleries. He has had solo exhibitions throughout Canada, the United States, Lithuania, and Mexico. His work has been exhibited in group exhibitions in Canada, Italy, Russia, Argentina, USA, Netherlands, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and China. His work is held in permanent collections at the Chinese Museum of Photography, Lishui, China; Datz Museum of Art, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea; Beaty Biodiversity Museum, Vancouver, Canada; Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, United States; Four Seasons Hotel, Toronto, Canada; Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, Boston, USA; and The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, USA.

David Ellingsen: Weather Patterns is supported in part by Members of the ICA.

David Ellingsen, Top Fives, Collected Textual Climate Milestones 2011 to 2020, 2020, Projection. Courtesy of the Artist

David Ellingsen, Collected Visual Climate Milestones, 2020, Projection. Courtesy of the Artist

David Ellingsen, Collected Visual Climate Milestones, 2020, Projection. Courtesy of the Artist