Building on previous projects responding to the landscape, community and tourism-led economic infrastructure of Engelberg in Switzerland, White Light Black Snow constitutes an investigation into and meditation upon the qualities and meanings of ‘whiteness’. As with many other projects, the work may be considered as a form of extended research. The starting point here is the snow that not only defines and forms the landscape of the valley but also drives the leisure economy that is crucial to Engelberg’s ongoing existence. However, from here, through film and photography, the work launches an aesthetic investigation, considering ice and snow in conditions of darkness and illumination, as both beautiful and abject, as both subject and setting.
