Mike Glier:
Antipodes: New Zealand

Exhibition View

Antipodes, is a road trip to write, photograph and paint in landscapes on opposite points of the globe. In the summer of 2009, Glier traveled to Botswana, and in May of 2010, to its antipode, Hawaii. He continued the project this year by visiting New Zealand and its antipode, Spain. The purpose, besides satisfying curiosity and attempting to make a few memorable paintings, is both to respond to specific places and to visualize the earth. If the environment is to remain fit to inhabit, we must simultaneously preserve our neighborhoods and consider the global consequences of our actions. To stretch one’s perception from the local to the global is a feat that requires imagination and empathy. It’s also a challenge that defines our time. Antipodes is an attempt to represent this challenge.

Antipodes is the third part of a larger, outdoor painting project. The first part, Latitude, is a series of paintings made in one place over time to study the change of color, light and motif as the earth tilts on its access. The second part, Along a Long Line, is a set of paintings, a blog and a book recording a trip along the 70th longitude beginning at the Arctic Circle and ending at the equator. Marking a point, drawing an arc and implying a diameter, these three projects visualize the earth as a shared space, sectioned by scientific measure rather than political boundaries.