World's first memorial to a lost glacier up for Design Museum award

A memorial recognizing Okjökull as the first named Icelandic glacier to fall victim to climate change. Photo by Amy McCaig.

More than a year ago, Rice University anthropologists Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer led a group of approximately 100 people on a rocky trek up an Icelandic shield volcano to install a memorial to Okjökull, the country's first named glacier lost to climate change. Now, the first-of-its-kind plaque is up for an award from the Design Museum in London.

A memorial recognizing Okjökull as the first named Icelandic glacier to fall victim to climate change. Photo by Amy McCaig.
A memorial recognizing Okjökull as the first named Icelandic glacier to fall victim to climate change. Photo by Amy McCaig.

Howe said the nomination for the museum's Beazley Designs of the Year contest "came as a total surprise," and that just being nominated is "a huge honor." The competition brings together the best examples of design over the last year from around the world across six categories: architecture, digital, fashion, graphics, product and transport. The judging panel selects a winner in each category along with the overall Beazley Design of the Year.

The memorial plaque was nominated for the award in the graphics category by Paola Antonelli, senior curator of the department of architecture and design and director of research and development at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It is up against 12 other pieces in its category, including a rendering of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and a work by the street artist Banksy. Winners will be announced in early to mid-December.

The plaque is also up for a People's Choice Award, which the public can vote on here through Nov. 20.

Even as the world's first memorial to a glacier attracted political and media attention from all corners of the globe, Howe and Boyer "never really thought of the plaque as a design project," Boyer said. But in retrospect, he understands the interest in the project.

"It was a designed artifact that had a certain public impact," he said. "And we assembled the group of people who created the artifact and so in the end, I guess we discovered we were designers after all."

Howe was the principal investigator for “Melt: The Social Life of Ice at the Top of the World," a research project that centered on the cultural impact of Icelandic glacial loss. The endeavor connected her with Oddur Sigurðsson, an Icelandic glaciologist who declared in 2014 that Okjökull, also known as Ok, was no longer a glacier. This ultimately led to Howe and Boyer’s initiative to create the memorial.

Cast in bronze by Icelandic metal worker Grétar Már Þorvaldsson, the plaque includes "a letter to the future" in both Icelandic and English, written by Icelandic author Andri Snaer Magnason. It states that all of Iceland's glaciers are expected lose their glacier status within 200 years without climate intervention. The letter concludes, "This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it." It includes the date and the CO2 level at the time the plaque was installed.

"The Ok glacier memorial is an extraordinary example of how art and design, even when found in the most unexpected locations, can prompt engagement and inspire positive change," said Alison Weaver, executive director of Rice's Moody Center for the Arts. "By bringing people together through a collaborative project and drawing attention to the impact of climate change, Cymene and Dominic challenge us as viewers to be more accountable for the planet and its future."

Howe noted that many of the pieces nominated for the Beazley awards are oriented around themes of justice, including social, environmental and racial justice.

"You can see the museum is really trying to push the envelope on the messaging that you can do with design and how it shows up in public spaces to make an impact," she said. "These are objects that tell a story."

Indeed, the story of Okjökull continues to inspire others. Shortly after the plaque was installed, a group in Switzerland hosted a memorial for a lost glacier there, and just this month, a group in the U.S. held a funeral for a lost glacier in Oregon.

Howe and Boyer hope their plaque will continue to encourage environmental activism around the world.

“We find it incredibly important and moving that people in other countries are now developing their own rituals of mourning to honor what is being lost to climate change,” Boyer said.

To vote for the Okjöjull memorial plaque in the People's Choice category, visit https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/beazley-designs-of-the-year/graphics.

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