Exsiccatae, Kabuso 2018/19 200cmx1200cm, old preservative-jars and lichen, photo by Pål Hoff
Photo by Pål Hoff
Photo by Pål Hoff
Photo by Pål Hoff
Exsiccatae, detail, photo by Pål Hoff
Exsiccatae, detail, photo by Pål Hoff
Exsiccatae, detail, photo by Pål Hoff
Exsiccatae, detail, photo by Pål Hoff
Exsiccatae, detail, photo by Pål Hoff
Exsiccatae, detail, photo by Pål Hoff
Exsiccatae
Lichen is amongst the least-observed and studied specimens in our nature. In Norway alone, there are approximately 2,000 different species.
In their own imitable manner, they stand, hang and cling to earth, stone and trees in interesting and highly diverse ways. Upon closer study, they emerge as a unique visual micro-world of great beauty, forming secret gardens and forests in the small format.
So far, our knowledge of lichen is limited. We know that they spread with the wind, and as such know neither boundaries nor borders, that they are amongst the oldest growths there are, and the first to spread to new areas. And given enough time it can break down stone. The long-term perspective of these growths is staggering.
The use of Norgesglass as building blocks for the project is a tribute to my own national history. For close to a century these particular glass jars were used as a way of preserving food made by the hard and often thankless work of countless women. Many of us have fond memories of dark basements and cellars where row upon row of glasses filled with delicacies in the form of preserved fruits were carefully selected and served at Sunday dinners. For modern western man, a bygone era where food was scarce and valuable, and wasting it a sin.
"Exsiccatae" is a tribute to all the quiet things.
“There is an extreme looseness in the structure of everything”
Joseph Conrad
From the lichen-collection of Johan Havaas in Hardanger
Sevrin Kjerland
The studio with parts of my lichen collection
The Havaas-collection
With gratitude to Professor Emeritus Tor Tønsberg at the Natural History Museum in Bergen for his generosity, passion and immense knowledge of lichen and the world they live in.
The summer of 2017, I had the great pleasure of meeting Sevrin Kjerland in a small village off the Hardanger fjord. Sevrin is the watcher of the rather beautiful collection of lichen left by the botanist Johan Havaas; - a lichen-collection that became the linchpin of my project.
Havaas was an extraordinary character that lived and worked on a small mountain farm in Hardanger, and who with barely seven years of primary school in his formal baggage became one of the finest scientists of his time in the field of lichen research. Self-thought, he became proficient in five languages, a university scholar at the University in Bergen, - and after his death in 1956 large parts of his lichen-collection was purchased by Duke University in the US.
But at the farm Havaas, parts of the collection were left and forgotten, until the early 90s when local farmer Sevrin Kjærland decided to save it from decades of neglect in dusty cardboard boxes. With great care and respect he has sorted, cleaned and made the collection available to the public, thus keeping the heritage of Havaas alive.