'Getting our hands and feet numb': Singapore artists brave -31 deg C cold to build Icehotel room

SINGAPORE – Two intrepid artists from Singapore travelled to Jukkasjarvi, a village in Sweden 200km north of the Arctic Circle, and braved extreme conditions to build a hotel room for the famed Icehotel 33.

Edmund Chan Jian Xiong and Tan Tai Tien arrived in Sweden on Nov 30 and had to complete construction of their proposed design before the hotel opened on Dec 16 for the winter season.

Icehotel has been in operation since 1989 and this is currently its 33rd edition. 

Their design, called Dreams of Pencils, was inspired by pencils.

"I spent a long time thinking about possible designs. While I was holding my pencil and thinking, it suddenly occurred to me that I was holding a very important design tool," Chan, 33, says in an e-mail.

The pencil motif appears as pillars and benches carved out of ice. The bed is a pencil box, with a headboard of large ice pencils. And a pattern based on the hexagon – the cross-section of a pencil – is carved into the frozen arched ceiling.

Dreams of Pencils is one of 12 art suites that were created for Icehotel 33 by a total of 24 artists from around the world whose proposals were selected. While it is not a competition, the artists did receive an honorarium and a copyright fee.

Chan says: "It was a struggle getting used to being in the freezing cold and getting our hands and feet numb. On the first few days, the temperature was manageable at around minus 11 deg C. Subsequently, the temperature dropped as low as minus 31 deg C."

The artists were aided by a support team provided by the hotel, but they had to handle heavy machinery themselves too.

"We had to learn how to use the chainsaw to cut the ice blocks. It is not easy to manoeuvre as it is a large and powerful machine, so it was very tricky to cut the straight lines of our design," says Tan, 36, who is also a senior papermaker at STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery.

In addition, they had to use a fuel-powered drill to bore into blocks of ice.

The duo had participated in the International Snow Sculpture Contest in Sapporo, Japan, in 2019.

But building the Icehotel room "was our first time in such extreme conditions", says Chan, a technical art and design executive at Tanglin Trust School, Singapore.

Chan is a veteran of the Sapporo competition, having participated since 2012. But the latest edition was cancelled, so he decided to look for other events to join.

"I went to the Icehotel website and noticed that it had an open call. I was really excited about it and got Tai Tien to join me. In June, we received the e-mail from Icehotel saying we were selected to participate in its 2022 edition."

Jukkasjarvi is located next to the banks of the Torne River and ice from the frozen river is used to create a new version of the Icehotel every year.

Chan says: "The hotel's temporary and ephemeral nature makes it such a unique project. It is also so closely connected with its environment.

"The ice and snow that make up the hotel come from the Torne River that runs through Jukkasjarvi, and every year when it melts, it returns to the river."

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.