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Thaw points

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It takes hours behind the wheel from Iceland's Reykjavik airport, crossing a craggy moon landscape of lava fields and mountains in black rainstorm conditions to reach artist Roni Horn. There, about 1.5 degrees latitude south of the Arctic Circle, she's reclining on the grass in warm sun.

'This is more like Florida to me,' she says, blinking through her glasses. Life this far north is surely meant to be a bit colder than this.

The New York artist is in the country, which she has visited many times since the 1970s, for her latest project, the Library of Water.

The Earth's extremities have always had an allure for explorers - and artists have usually not been far behind.

Photographer Frank Hurley accompanied Ernest Shackleton on his bid to cross the Antarctic in 1914. Shackleton's ship, Endurance, was broken up by pack ice and his men were lucky to escape with their lives, but Hurley set to work regardless and captured sublime visions of the sinking ship while they waited to be rescued.

Hurley's photographs were cries of defiance. The north and south poles are much easier to reach these days, and with the ice-caps melting, the artistic response is more likely to be regret for humanity's conquering spirit.

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