Anne Thomassen

Places I've been. Places That Matter

The background for these artworks are based on places I've been, that have a story or "speak" to me. They are taken from various landscapes in northern Norway in which I have hiked a lot. We often do not notice changes until it is too late, and we do not see the consequences of interventions in nature until after they have occurred. In recent years, fortunately, this has been highlighted in the media to a greater extent, but is it to late?

 

"North": Stoneware 32x30x9 cm.

“North” is a free interpretation of a place in Gildeskål in northern Norway that means a lot to me, which has wonderful limestone caves where traces of people from the Stone Age have been found. Unfortunately, we today's people have created new tracks by carving names into the walls and the caves are now closed.

“Novika”: Stoneware 34x27x8 cm

In Novika in Gildeskål municipality is one of the country's secret military facilities. Since 2021, the facility has started a major upgrade. This is to ensure communication with submarines in the future. (It's not really that much of a secret since it's both written about in newspapers and on FB.

“Dark Times”: Stoneware 31x29x7 cm

The Hard Clime : 35x25x10 cm, Stoneware

"The forest on the island in the marsh": Stoneware 30x35x15 cm

Bogs have disappeared through development of the landscape for many decades. We have started to reconstruct lost nature at the same time that large areas are disappearing in the development of roads, industry and holiday homes.

"The hunt for the minerals": Stoneware 34x28x10 cm.

There has been mining in Sulis for 100 years until 1991. Now they plan to start mining again in 2030 to extract more minerals. The waste is planned dumped in lake nearby. We had a small cabin in Sulitjelma when I was young.