Inheriting Landscapes

In 2015, Sylvia Javén was one of the artists and archaeologists participating in the Can You Dig It? project in Gothenburg who worked closely with the materials and excavation at Nya Lödöse. That project asked an important question, “What happens when art draws close to science?”. 

Sylvia has written about her work in the project as follows.

Large amounts of the soil at the archaeological excavation of Nya Lödöse were poisonous, mainly due to modern industry. Part of the contaminated soil contained heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and petroleum products. As in many other contaminated locations in Sweden the earth has to be taken away or cleansed. Everything of value from the archaeological excavation was removed, gently cleaned from the soil, and then preserved. And yet, through all of this, we do not speak of the value of earth itself.

Through a minimalistic and symbolic language, Sylvia wanted to express the tracing of materials and information in the process of approaching the materials. Taking on the role of a researcher, she looked at the landscape in small details, in the plants, the herbs, the chemical reactions. Her research became a rabbit running in multiple directions, and Sylvia was chasing that rabbit down holes of alternative medicine, environmental concerns, chemistry. Knowledge, as a material, was briefly touched before the hunt proceeded and the facts were turned into symbols.

The key element to the installation was a number of packages of soil wrapped as gifts and decorated with heather in the middle of the room. The landscape was inherited; it will be passed on. A gift comes with obligations, with expectations: “gift” being a false cognate meaning poison in Swedish; “heather”, due to Swedish superstitions, being a bad sign of sickness or death if ever brought indoors, though at the same time used in old times as a tea to cure insomnia.

The search for connections spans time and fields. Looking closer at the chemicals in the herbs that are used for medical treatment and at the poisonous chemicals, Sylvia realized that the only thing that determines what is good and what is dangerous to the human body is the amount of chemical in the herbs. In the installation, twelve silver spoons balancing on the edge of a mantlepiece, pointing to the room, are each filled with a mouthful of the soil. Take your medicine, ask no questions.

The text included above is based on the artist’s words that can be found at this link:

https://www.sylviajaven.com/inheriting-landscapes

For more information about Sylvia and her other work, have a look here:

https://www.sylviajaven.com/

Can You Dig It? was conducted at the University of Gothenburg within the Academy of fine Art Valand and in association with the Department of Historical Studies as a part of the NEARCH project which was supported by the European Commission (2013-2018) in its culture program. Conducted by the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP), the NEARCH project, was a European-wide cooperation network of 16 partners from 10 countries; the project aimed to explore the varying dimensions of public participation in contemporary archaeology and bring new ways of working and collaborating. One of the five main themes in the project was Imagining - Archaeology and the imaginary: crossroads between science and art. Further information about NEARCH and the Imaginary theme can be found art this website, http://www.nearch.eu/imagining.

To follow the processes and events of Can You Dig It?, follow this link:

https://canyoudigitohyeah.tumblr.com/