Art and science share common themes: both demand creativity, close observation, curiosity and a lot of trial and error in the search for understanding. Each Homeward Bound voyage has hosted a collective artwork. Past projects have included lino prints, patchwork and bunting. The art medium is flexible, as long as it is simple to learn, joyful to make, and invites everyone in.
On the HB Transform voyage, we created an illustrated map of Antarctica on heavyweight cotton paper. Voyagers contributed an eclectic mix of art supplies, from markers and watercolours to collage papers, thread and sequins. The only prompt was to depict something personally meaningful about Antarctica. In quiet pockets of time between the leadership program and off ship excursions, small groups gathered to experiment with new techniques. Impromptu watercolour and needle punch tutorials unfolded around slowly cooling cups of coffee, regularly interrupted by cries of “WHALE!”
As the front of each postcard filled with colour, attention turned to the message on the back. Each voyager wrote to someone important - policymakers, communities, future generations, or their own future selves - reflecting on what Antarctica had taught them. Some chose to keep their letters private.
Every postcard became a small testimony, shaped by awe, concern, hope, collaborative ethos and a deepened sense of responsibility towards Antarctica’s fragile ecosystems. Laid out together, these individual works form a counter map of the continent: a layered landscape where identity, reflection and intent converge, and where the usual view of Antarctica is rearranged around personal experience.
The artwork is intimate and collective at once. It suggests that big questions demand collectives, and that collective action must hold many perspectives if we are to imagine a just planetary future.
Antarctica’s beauty and vulnerability fragility amplify the urgency of human decisions and action. Its ice, winds, mountains and vastness remind us of scales far beyond a single human lifetime.
Postcards from Antarctica is artwork, archive and invitation. It records a fleeting moment in a remote ecosystem, a tapestry of voices articulating hopes, fears, and commitments, and calls on viewers to recognise the power and responsibility we all carry.
Download here versions of the topographic map postcards suitable for use in classrooms. Please credit the artist Jessica Lee Leck.
