Agálaččat bivttastuvvon sohkagotti ivnniiguin
Ihkát ájttegij bájnoj gárvodum
Forever dressed in the colors of the family
Ihkuven aajkan maadtoej klaeriejgujmie gåårveldihkie
Perpetually Wound in the Colors of the Ancestors
On March 24, 2021, I presented the work at the Kart- och Bildenheten, Karolina Rediviva in Uppsala. I did that in a conversation with curator Natalie King. I had covered 42 albums in the Institute for Racial Biology's archives. It was an album with photographs of Sami. These covers have been part of something, they have embraced the photo albums with the vulnerable and given the anonymous photographs a story. The covers can also be seen as bandages enclosing to protect or tell about their objects. There are covers with costume details that have a direct connection to the people inside the album. One of several examples is album D7 from Arvidsjaur. Inside that album is a photograph of Karin Stenberg, a pioneer in Sami politics, education and cultural issues. For that album, I have a leather bag with pewter embroidery that Karin herself has sewn. More similar links are available for more albums.
The work will probably never be repeated if I am not allowed to do it again at the archive in Uppsala. Which I currently see no reason to do.
2021
Karolina Rediviva, Kart- och bildenheten, Uppsala University
40 albums, landscape and portrait, landscape format, approx. 33 x 26 cm, portrait format approx. 55 x 39 cm
Materials: cloth, yarn, pewter wire, pewter buttons, metal, beads
Fotograf: Mattias Lindbäck