Constructing Sami National Heritage: Encounters Between Tradition and Modernity in Sami Art

Summary

The article explores the construction of Sami national heritage taking works from a touring exhibition, Gierdu, as the object for exploration. The exhibition opened in 2009 displaying 27 artworks from the art collection at RiddoDuottarMuseat in Karasjok in Norway. The exploration is contextualised as an understanding of heritage, tradition and modernity as dynamic concepts dealing with how we interpret and validate the past in the present. Artworks, both categorised as duodji, and dáidda are on display in Gierdu. In the early years of the Sami ethno-political movement, duodji was considered authentic Sami, while dáidda was considered non-Sami. In recent years, both Sami and other scholars have questioned the difference, claiming the relation between tradition and modernity as appropriations, dialogues and encounters rather than oppositions. Through a reading of a selection of works from the exhibition, several appropriations are found. One appropriation is how duodji is institutionalised in the art museum. Another is how Western, modernist art is included in a Sami collection of art. A third appropriation is how contemporary art practices as assemblage reintroduces magic and ritual to the gallery, from which such distractions previously were removed. The most important construction of heritage in Gierdu is the reconstruction of a space important for duodji – operating between the sacred and the profane. The reconstructed space has the same, dynamic qualities, but instead of a space between the sacred and the profane, art in the reconstructed space operates between tradition and modernity.

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by Research Council of Norway [189491]; UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education [A41412]; UiT The Arctic University of Norway Faculty of Fine Arts.

Notes

1. RDM is an abbreviation of RiddoDuottarMuseat/The Sami Museum Collections.

2. More about the relation between indigenous people and Western museums and art institutions, see James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art, Cambridge, MA, 1988, pp. 215–254.

3. Paul Pedersen and Asle Høgmo, Sápmi slår tilbake: Samiske revitaliserings- og moderniseringsprosesser i siste generasjon, Kárášjohka, 2012, p. 19.

4. Eva Skotnes Vikjord and Irene Snarby (Eds.), Gierdu: Bevegelser i samisk kunstverden/Sirdimat sámi duodje- ja dáiddamáilmmis, Bodø, 2009, p. 7.

In addition to the touring exhibition, Gierdu consisted of seminars, a catalogue, and a website http://gierdu.no (12.05.2016).

5. SKINN is an abbreviation of a publicly funded organisation mediating art in northern Norway (Se Kunst I Nord-Norge).

6. The distinction appears in the Sami Artists’ Union’s definition of Sami art. See Synnøve Persen (Ed.), Sámi Dáiddárleksikona/Samisk Kunstnerleksikon, Alta, 1993, pp. 8–9 and at the RDM webpage http://rdm.no/norsk/samisk_kunst/ (12.05.2016). The distinction also appears in numerous texts about Sami art. See Hanna H. Hansen, Fortellinger om samisk samtidskunst, Karasjok, 2007, p. 13f.

7. Derek Gillman, The Idea of Cultural Heritage, Cambridge, 2010, p. 66.

8. Richard Handler and Jocelyn Linnekin, “Tradition: Genuine or Spurious”, The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 97, No. 385 (Jul–Sep), 1984, pp. 273–290, p. 287.

9. Mikhail M. Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination, Michael Holquist (Ed.), translated by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist, Austin, TX, 1981, p. 84.

10. Owe Ronström, “A Different Land: Heritage Production in the Island of Gotland”, Shima: The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2008, pp. 1–17, p. 9.

11. Ibid.

12. Harald Gaski, “Introduction: Sami Culture in a New Era”, in Harald Gaski (Ed.), Sami Culture in a New Era: The Norwegian Sami Experience, Kárášjohka/Karasjok, 1997, p. 11.

13. Vigdis Stordahl, Same i den moderne verden: Endring og kontinuitet i et samisk lokalsamfunn, Karasjok, 1996, p. 97.

14. Op. cit., p. 96.

15. Handler and Linnekin, 1984, p. 273.

16. On traditionalisation, see Tom Mould, “The Paradox of Traditionalization: Negotiating the Past in Choctaw Prophetic Discourse”, Journal of Folklore Research, Vol. 42, No. 3, September–December 2005, pp. 255–294, p. 261.

17. M. Estellie Smith, “The Process of Sociocultural Continuity”, Current Anthropology, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Apr.), 1982, pp. 127–142, p. 132.

18. Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in Late Modern Age, Stanford, CA, 1991, pp. 15–16.

19. Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts into the Air, New York, 1988, p. 5.

20. Rauna Kuokkanen, Boaris dego eana: Eamiábmogiid diehtu, filosofiijat ja dutkan, SÁMIacademica 2, Kárášjohka, 2009, p. 168f.

21. Jelena Porsanger, “The Problematisation of the Dichotomy of Modernity and Tradition in Indigenous and Sami Contexts”, Dieđut, 1/2011, pp. 225–252, p.239f.

22. See James Elkins, Stories of Art, New York and London, 2002, pp. xi–xv.

23. Irene Snarby, “Duodji as Sami Experiences in Contemporary Art”, Jaskadit jorrá jurdda/Stille vender tanken (Silently the Thought Turns) by Iver Jåks, in Hanna Horsberg Hansen et al. (Eds.), Beauty and Truth/Čáppatvuohta ja duohtavuohta: Dialogues Between Sami Art and Art Historical Research, Stamsund, 2014, pp. 16–21, p. 16.

24. Maja Dunfjeld, Tjaalehtjimmie: Form og innhold i sørsamisk ornamentikk, Tromsø, 2001, p. 65.

25. Op. cit., p. 72.

26. Maja Dunfjeld, Tjaalehtjimmie: Form og innhold i sørsamisk ornamentikk, Snåsa, 2006, p. 44.

27. Jørn Magnus Rivojen Langseth, Båtskål (Boat bowl), 2004. Birchwood, horn. 12 × 21 × 8.5 cm. RDM collection, SD 0735.

28. Dunfjeld, 2001, p. 185.

29. Gunvor Guttorm, Duoji bálgát: En studie i Duodji, Tromsø, 2001, p. 63.

30. Nils Oskal, “The Character of the Milk Bowl as Separate World, and the World as a Multitudinous Totality of References”, in Marit Anne Hauan (Ed.), Sami Stories: Art and Identity of an Arctic People, Tromsø/Stamsund, 2014, pp. 79–89, p. 85.

31. Dunfjeld, 2001, p. 205.

32. Op. cit., p. 186.

33. Folke Fjellström, En förgången tid (A Time Passed), 2008. Wood, horn, 161 × 92 cm. RDM collection, SD 0803.

34. Anna-Stina Svakko, Čuvges mátki III/Ljus resa III (Bright travel III), 2007. Plexiglass, wool, leather, silk, fish skin. 28 × 20 × 10 cm. RDM collection, SD 0782.

35. Randi Marainen, En magisk sølvkule (A Magic Silver Ball), 2007. Silver. 52 × 15 cm. RDM collection, SD 0774.

36. Phebe Fjellström, Lapskt silver: Studier över en föremålsgrupp och dess ställning inom lapskt kulturliv, Uppsala, 1962, p. 46ff.

37. Johan Turi, Min bok om samene. Translated by Harald O. Lindbach from Johan Turi, Muittalus sámiid birra, 1910, Karasjok, 2011, p. 28. Available in English: An Account of the Sámi: A Translation of Muitalus Sámiid Birra Based on the Sámi Original, Karasjok, 2012.

38. Fjellström, 1962, p. 50.

39. Gutttorm, 2001, p. 63.

40. Oskal, 2014, p. 85.

41. See Hanna Horsberg Hansen, Fluktlinjer: Forståelser av samisk samtidskunst, Tromsø, 2010, pp. 133–145.

42. Ruth Phillips, “Fielding Culture: Dialogues Between Art History and Anthropology”, Museum Anthropology, Vol. 18, No. 1, 1994, pp. 39–46, p. 39.

43. Clifford, 1988, p. 198.

44. Jason Gaiger and Paul Wood (Eds.), Art of the Twentieth Century: A Reader, New Haven and London, 2003, p. 16.

45. Clifford, 1988, p. 199.

46. Op. cit., p. 197.

47. Johannes Fabian, Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes Its Object, New York, 1983, p. 11f.

48. Arnold Johansen, Marion, 2005. Photography and folding technique. 138 × 105 cm. RDM collection, SD 0667.

49. Roland Bonaparte visited Finnmark in 1884 together with the photographer G. Roche. He photographed 139 Sami persons en face and in profile.

50. Marja Helander, Siedi, Várjavuotna, (Sacrificial Stone, Varanger fjord), 2002. Photography. 39.5 × 40 cm. RDM collection, SD 0724. Marja Helander, Ánnevárri (Mount Annivaara), 2002. Photography. 48 × 39.5 cm. RDM collection. SD 0657.

51. Synnøve Persen, Turning Point, 2000. Painting, oil on canvas. 152 × 146 cm. RDM collection, SD 0491.

52. Hanna Horsberg Hansen, “Sami Artist Group 1978-1983: A Story about Sami Traditions in Transition”, in Charis Gullikson and Sandra Lorentzen (Eds.), Sámi Stories: Art and Identity of an Arctic People, Tromsø, 2014, pp. 89–105, p. 92f.

53. Clement Greenberg, “Modernist Painting”, reprinted in Charles Harrison and Paul Wood (Eds.), Art in Theory 1900-1990: An Anthology of Changing Ideas, Oxford, 1998, pp. 754–760, p. 755.

54. Outi Pieski, Eahkedis albmi/Kveldshimmel (Evening Sky), 2001. Painting, acrylic on textile and metal foil. 150 × 150 cm. RDM collection, SD 0669.

55. Dunfjeld, 2001, p. 259.

56. Displayed at solo exhibition HornVerk at Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Trondheim, Norway in 2006.

57. Aslaug Juliussen, Hornild (Hornfire), 2005. Styrofoam, dyed reindeer horns and reindeer hair, 80 × 75 × 75 cm. RDM collection, SD 0789.

58. Britta Marakatt-Labba, Jag har fångat dem alla (I Have Captured Them All), 2004. Fish skin, embroidery and pencil drawing on paper. 68.5 × 88.5 cm. RDM collection, SD 0634.

59. Åsa Virdi Kroik, “Djuren: Beskyddare, budbärare och vänner”, in Åsa Virdi Kroik (Ed.), Etter förfädrarnas sed: Om samisk religion, Stockholm, 2005, p. 22.

60. See Virdi Kroik, 2005, pp. 14–25.

61. Britta Marakatt-Labba, Untitled, 2007. Embroidery on linen, 40 × 2400 cm. UiT – The Arctic University of Norway.

62. Tone Kristine Thørring Tingvoll, “Et stykke samisk og nordisk kunsthistorie: Britta Marakatt-Labbas broderier”, Ottar, nr. 2, 2010, pp. 19–24, p. 23.

63. See Mould, 2005, p. 260.

64. Phillips, 1994, p. 43.