Nuortabealli (Sámi language for Nightshade in Winter)

This project sits under an umbrella title; Fire Without Heat, containing a series of books with a first edition with writer Jessica Lack who has been creating a fictional story inspired from our conversations. Her English text has then been translated into Swedish and then into North Sámi, an important aspect in my work the act of translation. The film itself is called Nuortabealli /Nightshade. This work, as many of my projects includes extensive research, sometimes for many years and it’s vital point sits in the conglomerated collection of facts and myths. The research I am interested in does not sit at a distance going through archives of already collected material but incorporates this with heavily embodied research of moving the body from A to B to C and by doing so trying to disolve the borders of how we interpret knowledge between fact and fiction. It incorporates & engages the Sami shaman drum and the legend of the white reindeer in a shadow-play/puppet theatre made of historical fragments, stories and identities. The script was written on silk, to create a merging of matter and thought which leaves the silk towards abstractions of form. The text floats out and becomes unreadable in certain parts. The use of textile also flirts with Sami craft. This is a layered and condensed piece of work-which I hope will give a sense on the impact Sámi culture have and has had internationally by me ‘borrowing’ back Sámi inspired art projects and re-working these into something new. Sophie Tauber-Arp borrowed Sámi patterns for her weaves and I have borrowed the DADA look of her puppet theatre the Kings Stag for Nuortabealli. A circle. A return.