Thoreaus Journals
Spruce, charcoal, resin, human hair, cotton
2018

Thoreaus Journals consists of 47 brushes. As many as the volumes of handwritten journals by Henry David Thoreau, that was found after his death in tuberculosis 1862.

42 kilometer in a westerly direction outside central Helsinki is Noux national park located with an area of 45 km2. After a few hours in the dense forest of fir, we reached the lake Ruuhilamppi, where we were planning to spend our time. On a sleeping mat, inside a sleepingbag, almost adequate for the minus degrees during the nights in the end of september, an undergarment made of wool and a cap of cotton, a robin was wakening me up under the fir three beside my pillow. We we’re seven strangers, from different countries and parts of the world supposed to spend our time together during a week in the finish forest.

This is when the work Thoreaus Journals came alive. During these days, in the woods. I used the water from the lake for washing up and swimming, as drinking water and for cooking food at our fire. The forest was my kitchen, my bedroom, my bathroom and my studio. Surrounded by the threes and the sticks, my hands felt a need to start carving. I made a glue with the resin from the pine three, and the charcoal from the fire. I cut off some of my hair from my neck to make my first brush.

Thoreaus Journals was exhibited at galleri Low Standards in Oslo (2018) and at Steneby Konsthall in Dals Långhed (2021).