Artica Svalbard is one of Norway’s leading not-for-profit residency foundations. Based in Longyearbyen, Svalbard it is a place for thinking slowly, in a fast changing world. But what does it mean to be ‘in residence’ ?

The Queen Sonja Print Award has been a key partner of Artica since its founding in 2016, nominating artists alongside the other key partner institutions, The Norwegian Nonfiction Writers' and Translators' Association (NFFO), Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum and Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA). This partnership has established Artica as a leading residency programme in Norway, not only helping the foundation offer best practice but also supporting us in our values: professional impact, engagement and to influence change.

Alongside the exhibited works, we have a screening programme of films about the residents and will host a public event to discuss further the importance of residencies to the arts and what challenges we face now, post-pandemic - current climate emergency. Details of this will be announced soon. 

Available during the exhibition you can pick up a free copy of Artica Writings 2021 publication.

LIST OF WORKS

Petter Buhagen 

Unshatter, (2021)
line etching and aquatint
53.2 x 39.1 cm
final edition of 3 (+artist proofs and tests)  

Low-Res Tears, (2021)
Aquatint
53.7 x 39.1 cm
final edition of 4 (+artist proofs and tests)

The two prints are technical experiments where Buhagen used custom cut vinyl foil, applied directly onto the copper plates to mask out the acid in the etch bath creating the white, graphic parts of the prints. The (light and dark) grey surfaces were created with the aquatint technique, and the different marks and fingerprints were parts of the process where Buhagen also experimented with different ways of rubbing off the excess ink on the plates before they went through the press. For Unshatter, the hand was made with a classic line etching technique.

“A main part of my ongoing research is based around how new technology influences how we live and experience the world. Therefore it was especially interesting to recognise the complex relationship between the proud tradition and hard labour of the coal mining industry and the future prospect to close down the mines for environmental reasons.” (Buhagen, in residence 2021)

AK Dolven 
NOW (2021)
Drypoint with Svalbard coal ink, sound piece
Prints 29 x 21 cm (each)
Sound piece: 6:39 min

The print has been made using an ink developed by the artist and her studio assistant, Aksel Ree. After ongoing tests in the Lofoten and Oslo studio, they managed to produce an ink from Svalbard coal that was suitable for dry-point printmaking.

The 60-million-year-old coal is hard, almost like rock, which means you need a fine balance of ground coal mixed with a transparent ink that is then combined with oil. This mix is worked over for a long time, using a pigment-mortar, to make just the right consistency and graining. The character of the ink creates a presence of coal particles on the paper’s surface meaning each print is different. Alongside the print, Dolven has created a new sound work which features her own voice, often used throughout her practice, expressing the word NOW. The presence of the voice is muscular yet vulnerable, slow and meditative, creating a sense of unease.

*This artists edition is available for sale, please ask the QSPA staff for full details. 

Inma Herrera
Rubbing Printing of Svalbard fossils (2022)

“There are few places where the geology shows better than in Svalbard, where the vegetation is very sparse, with rocks from practically all geological time periods. From Triassic ammonites to perfectly kept plant pieces from the Cretaceous, it contains fossils from the first forest existing in the history of Earth. Svalbard’s fossils reveal the imprint of time and nature, due to sedimentation, pressure, changes in temperature, and the action of water.

Inspired by this natural phenomenon, I worked on the registration of fossils’ imprints following a printmaking technique called Rubbing Printing. This is an ancient, non-invasive, and acid-free image-transferring method that uses paper, water, and ink. With the help of an ink pad, the surface of the paper is carefully rubbed until it reveals the valleys and peaks of the natural grooves of the fossil’s surface, carved by the physical and chemical transformation taking place hundreds, of thousands of million years ago.” (Herrea in residence 2022)

Heehyun Jeong
Fjorder 01 (2022)
Etching (hardground)
70 x 50 cm

Fjorder 03 (2022)
Etching (hardground)
70 x 50 cm

“What I like about etching is that I can use it to draw a line, which is fragile but at the same time so deeply embossed that it is difficult to erase. There is no "undo". If it has to be removed, then it takes a lot of time. In front of the copper plate I am almost forced to assume that what I am doing now is decisive. I'm trying to lead a line that will almost never go away, I'm trying to lead another line that mirrors the current state, I repeat to the point of finally leading a line without trying. I lead a line that is connected to the whole and at the same time is right for itself at the moment. I can do it all of a sudden, and that's stamped in the copper plate. It's a beautiful occupation, a solemn, melancholy, clear stack of time. I like that. It's one of hundreds of suspicious reasons why I do etchings.” (Jeong, in residence 2022)

Ellen Karin Mæhlum 
Icescape #1 (2018/2019)
Line etching, aquatint
60 x 48cm

Icescape #2 (2018/2019)
Line etching, aquatint
60 x 48cm 

“Nature in the Arctic is vulnerable and climate change is dramatic, with rising temperatures and melting glaciers and sea ice. Over the past twenty years, I have made a number of "walk & work" trips to Svalbard and Greenland. It is overwhelming to experience the beauty and power of the ice landscape, the scenery is constantly changing due to currents, melting and light conditions.

In 2018 I was invited by QSPA to a residency at Artica's great and well-equipped graphics workshop. The stay gave me the opportunity and time to explore both the theme of ice melting and different etching techniques. The various physical forms of ice - both on a small and large scale - became motifs in the graphic series entitled Icescapes. This work has led to several exhibitions which includes large-scale prints up to 5-6 metres. My intention is to show fragments and glimpses of these unique, fragile and important Polar regions. As well as exploring Svalbard's landscapes, the encounters with the Artica team, locals and scientists were very inspiring. It also provided some new perspectives on art practice, nature and the way we live today.” (Mæhlum, in residence 2018)

Line Prip
Dichotomies, (2021)
Pencil drawing
33 × 18 cm

“At the old harbour, situated between Longyearbyen and the airport, the coal from Gruve 7 is unloaded. The pile of coal is not protected from the weather so when the wind blows the coal disperses. The fine black dust finds little pockets of shelter from the wind amongst the snow that covers the ground. Here it lays to rest. Together the coal and the snow create a microscopic landscape of crevasses, peaks and plains. There are no greys in this landscape, only an increase or decrease in the amount of coal particles covering the snow. Even though the coal and the snow coexist they remain separate entities.” (Prip, in residence 2021)

HM Dronning Sonja
Mot Lys (2017)
intaglio, polymer 
41.5 x 52.5 cm

Made during the opening events of Artica Svalbard, this intaglio, polymer print shows the beauty and mystic of Svalbard’s ice caves, which form every year in new and unique channels within the glacier. The blue reflects the light not only within the caves but also the colour of February, when the light begins to return to Svalbard.  

FILM SCREENINGS

Ignas Krunglevičius
In this short film we hear from artist Ignas Krunglevičius, who created HARD BODY DYSPRAXIA, a sonic installation inside a disused coal power plant in Longyearbyen, Svalbard in September 2021. The power plant was built in 1920 and after WWII saw various extensions and reconstructions. Finally closing down in 1983 when the new larger energy plant took over. Since then the doors have remained closed and the building untouched.

”The composition itself is very much about what I’m thinking now… about now. I communicated my sonic ideas to the building, the building answered. We met, we made the piece.” (Krunglevičius, in residence 2020)

Jessica MacMillan
In this short film, artist and Artica resident Jessica MacMillan discusses her work and the presentation of Time Line, a one-of-a-kind short term public project which took place for the first time in Longyearbyen in November 2021. Drawing a line of light in the sky with a powerful 10-watt laser, Time Line marks the exact direction our solar system is moving in space.

“My residency at Artica, and making Time Line a reality, has been the most important event of my career thus far. I have never worked so hard in my life to make such a large-scale thing happen before, and it would not have been possible without Artica’s support.” (MacMillan, in residence 2021)

The Slow Adventure

In October 2021, Artica hosted the project: The Slow Adventure, a collaborative between artist Floortje Zonneveld and the students of the Svalbard Folkehøgskole. The Slow Adventure is an exploration into the world we live in and an ongoing collective artistic research project. It raises a dialog that illuminates the landscape and gives insight into the nature of our surroundings. Collaborating with young people, the various workshops and site-specific experiments are designed to open up the senses (touch, sound, vision, smell), igniting curiosity and inspiring moments of discovery.

You can read more about the project and listen to the audio-walk here.