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Eden and Everything After Tanja Thorjussen in dialogue with museum collection animal figurines Museum of Archaeology, UiS, Stavanger, Norway From January 2023 to January 2024 Link to the Museum of Archaeology site Link to interview in Norwegian Link to video interview in English (on Vimeo) |
In 2020 I was invited by curator Dr. Jean Marie Carey and Dr. Kristin Armstrong-Oma to create new works of art based on artistic research and dialogue with the museum collection. Three objects stood out, the bird, the seal and the snake.
The bird and the seal are carved in soapstone from the stone age (ca 8000 - 5000 BCE) and the snake cast in gold is undated (iron age or viking age)
The Tupilaq diptych drawings are based on the seal and the bird, while the Naga and the Huluppi Tree triptych is based on the gold snake. In the case by the Tupilaq diptych is a Tupilaq Relic made by reindeer antlers from Finnmark and spindle whirls found in Rogaland, in the pyramid case is a Tupilaq Relic with blue watercolor, a rock borrowed from the local river and the gold snake.
Before sending off the drawings to the exhibition I had a studio visit from Jon Marius Nilsson who made a video interview about the project: LINK HERE
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Tupilaq is a creature in Inuit and Greenland folklore and mythology, which is created by mixing physical material from plant, animal and human with an intention from its creator, the shaman. My Tupilaq drawings and objects are created as a spell to protect nature from harm. The Tupilaq Relic is created by combining historical objects from the collection and found objects from my journeys near and far. |
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Residencies and artistic research 2021 - 2022
In 2022 I have visited the Museum of Archaeology on many short residencies to study the various objects in the collection.
In addition to the seal, bird and snake I have studied bird pins, sinkers, spindle whirls and some mysterious objects.
After each visit I came closer to learning more about the objects.
In addition to the seal, bird and snake I have studied bird pins, sinkers, spindle whirls and some mysterious objects.
After each visit I came closer to learning more about the objects.
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The stone age seal fits perfectly in my hand and is found near Nordre Sunde outside Stavanger and dated ca 8000-5000 BCE. 
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In addition to drawing and studying the objects at the museum I visited the Vistehola which is nearby where the seal was found. I wanted to see the landscape where these type of artworks was created 5-8000 years ago. Although the water level was higher at this time it is easy to see that this cave was a beautiful place to live!
