Portrait of Antarctica
Tatyana Kulida
Where the Journey Began
In 2017, a conversation with Nick Golledge, Professor of Glaciology at Victoria University of Wellington, changed the direction of my work. What began as curiosity about the Antarctic landscape grew into a deeper fascination with the science behind it — and with the people who spend their lives trying to understand what is happening to this continent, and what it means for the rest of us.
That curiosity became Portrait of Antarctica: a series of large-scale oil portraits, painted from life, of researchers, policymakers, and others whose work connects to Antarctica and climate change. Each sitting became something closer to a candid interview than a formal portrait session — conversations that opened new lines of inquiry, sent me back to the research, and shaped where the project went next. Alongside the paintings themselves, I spent years reading scientific papers, attending Antarctic conferences and talks at the Antarctic Research Centre at Victoria University, watching documentaries, and speaking directly with scientists — building both a network and an understanding I could not have gained any other way.
The Sitters
Ten portraits, representing a deliberately diverse community — connected by a shared concern for the planet's future, each carrying their own story of how they came to address it.
Nick Golledge
Glaciologist and Climate Scientist
By looking at naturally-occurring patterns and developing mathematical models, Nick creates simulations of how the Earth's climate might behave in future. The Antarctic ice sheet is a unique record of the Earth's climate history which scientists can use to test their models.
Nancy Bertler
Ice Core Paleoclimatologist
One of the pioneers of ice core research, Nancy is a leading scientist at New Zealand's National Ice Core Research Facility. Her work in collecting ice core samples from Antarctica has unlocked tens of thousands of years of climate history.
Peter Barrett
NZAM, Geologist, ARC Founding Director
Professor emeritus at Victoria University and founding director of the Antarctic Research Centre for 35 years. Peter is one of the oldest living explorers of Antarctica and its geological history.
Lizzie Meek
Programme Manager, Artefacts Conservation, Antarctic Heritage Trust
Lizzie is the curator and caretaker of the historic huts of Antarctica, portrayed inside Shackleton's 'Nimrod' Hut at Cape Royds, surrounded by the artefacts of survival and pursuit.
Dame Jane Goodall
Primatologist, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute
A scientist, activist, and storyteller who has spent a lifetime raising public awareness on sustainability and the protection of people, animals, and environment.
Pala Molisa
Lecturer, Self-alignment Therapist and Life Coach
A former Accounting Lecturer turned self-alignment therapist and advocate for indigenous rights, exploring what our story of the world says about the state of our minds.
Hon James Shaw
Minister for Climate Change, Co-leader of the Green Party
Portrayed in Antarctica during a tour of the historic huts, with Barne Glacier in the background — using portraiture to make an abstract idea more human and approachable.
Pat Langhorne
NZAM, Physicist and Sea Ice Researcher
A professor and researcher for four decades, with around twenty research visits to Antarctica studying sea ice at both poles as a record of the melting ice shelf.
Dr Jessica Hutchings
Researcher, writer, grower
A researcher, writer, and biodynamic gardener following a kaupapa Māori system for growing kai — soil health as part of the climate change conversation.
Self-Portrait
Painter in her studio
“To bring peace to the world you must begin with yourself, for you are the world. What you are, the world is.” — Jiddu Krishnamurti
Nine sitters, nine stories — and one more, painted last, looking back at all of them. In this self-portrait I placed myself among the other portraits, a still life of my own studio world, questioning my own role in the project: is it to conclude, to illuminate, or simply to keep asking the questions that matter — not only about the solution, but about the very definition of the problem?
The self-portrait sits apart from the sitters above because it isn't one more subject — it's the thread connecting all of them: the observer, the listener, the one who carried each conversation into paint.
Exhibition
Portrait of Antarctica was hung at the New Zealand Parliament (Visitor Centre, Ground Floor, Beehive) in January 2022. The original opening, scheduled for February, was postponed due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions; the exhibition was officially opened by Andrew Bayly MP on 3 May 2022 and came down in mid-June 2022.