Artist: Hans

Man Sculpted by Antarctica [1977]
Found material: Oregon timber
Sculpture Garden, Davis

Photo: Ian Phillips, 2007

The Africans say that you leave

a part of yourself,

your spirit,

in each place you camp

hence the searching looks

as we leave the campsite

even when we have nothing to leave.

The head holds my spirit of that stay.

He looks out to the forests

I left behind me,

when I stand on the coast

and look for auroras in the southern sky

he was there to look back at me...

After a while

I returned to my little village,

I got on with being

a part of the community here

with renewed vigor.

The beauty of Antarctic base communities

is similar to the one here,

we all live here because

we like the place and want be here.

Hans
AAD website 8 Jan 2008

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