Papers by Monica Grini
Forskning.no, 2024
Den store, retrospektive utstillingen Sylkvasse sting med Britta Marakatt-Labba (f. 1951) er den ... more Den store, retrospektive utstillingen Sylkvasse sting med Britta Marakatt-Labba (f. 1951) er den største samlede presentasjonen av Marakatt-Labbas verk noensinne og Nasjonalmuseets første separatutstilling med en kvinnelig kunstner med samisk bakgrunn. «På overtid», «det var virkelig på tide» er utrykk som har gått igjen i omtalene av utstillingen. At hovedinntrykket er at «dette er en begivenhet som burde ha funnet sted for lenge siden» vitner om en endret bevissthet om samiske kunstnerskap i hovedstadspressen. Samtidig sier det mye om posisjonen Marakatt-Labba har oppnådd.
Document Academy, 2020
This paper explores a well-known participant in Sami history, the more than 400-year-old drum tha... more This paper explores a well-known participant in Sami history, the more than 400-year-old drum that once belonged to the noadi Anders Poulsen. The paper studies neglected aspects of the drum as a material assembly. By treating it as an archive in itself, and not only as an artefact that has to be illuminated by other artifacts and archives, I hope to uncover new facets of both the drum as a material entity and its historical involvement in different events and environments. What kind of document is this drum? What kind of documents does it store as an archive? It has wounds, cracks and stiches, an animal claw is attached to its back, and it is marked with different numbers. What do such details tell and what do they entail? Obviously, the material assembled in this archive reveals insights into the process of its own making, as well as information about the drum’s life, including its travels, displacements, and exchanges with other actors.
Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History, 2023
The article centres around a well-known artefact in Sámi history, the more than 300-year-old drum... more The article centres around a well-known artefact in Sámi history, the more than 300-year-old drum that once belonged to Poala Ánde/Anders Poulsen, that has recently been returned to Sápmi after a long restitution process. Sámi drums were deemed sorcerers’ devices and routinely confiscated and destroyed during seventeenth century Danish autocracy; their users prosecuted and sometimes executed. In the early 1690s, the drum was seized and sent to Copenhagen and the Royal Danish Art Chamber, whereas the owner was killed in custody while awaiting the judicial decision. The case involves one of very few preserved Sámi drums accompanied by a contemporaneous indigenous voice conveyed in the trial document.
Paradoxically, at the same time as Sámi drums were confiscated and, in many cases, destroyed, some were embarking on journeys as attractive collectors’ items. Today, Sámi drums are frequently “arrested” in museum exhibitions as “shamanistic devices”, often echoing old tools and tropes of othering. The article argues that there is a tendency to translate actors like Poala Ánde/Anders Poulsen and the drum into categories that immobilise them, and which prevent historical configurations to enter the narrative. It also contends that discussions about what the figures on the drumhead represent have dominated the reception and steered attention away from individual aspects of the drum and its vibrant materiality. In line with the biographical approach of the exhibition Ruoktot – The Return of the Sámi Drums by the Sámi Museum in Kárášjohka, I explore the entangled agency of the drum to help consider material aspects and concurrent meanings.
Kunst og Kultur, 2022
This article centres on Lars Hætta’s miniature duodji, made while Hætta was imprisoned at Akershu... more This article centres on Lars Hætta’s miniature duodji, made while Hætta was imprisoned at Akershus Fortress (1856–1867) and collected by the Ethnographic Museum in Christiania (Oslo). The collection demonstrates problematic issues concerning artefacts created and acquired in circumstances dominated by asymmetric power relations. While emphasising the importance of Hætta’s Sámi knowledge and the agency of the artefacts themselves, the article also sheds critical light on the difficult sociopolitical and historical background of the miniatures. In the context of the prison, the miniatures are interpreted as empowering tools, allowing Hætta to perform important memory-work.
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Artikkelen løfter frem Lars Hættas miniatyrduodji, laget mens han satt fengslet på Akershus festning (1856–1867) og samlet av Etnografisk Museum i Christiania. Denne samlingen tematiserer aktuelle museumsspørsmål knyttet til gjenstander laget og ervervet i situasjoner med asymmetriske maktforhold. Artikkelen setter søkelys på betydningen av Hættas samiske kunnskapshorisont og konteksten han befant seg i, samtidig som gjenstandenes egen agens og materialitet undersøkes. Blant annet fremheves potensialet de har til å bidra til viktig minnearbeid for Hætta i fengsel. Den komplekse sosiopolitiske og historiske bakgrunnen spiller også en sentral rolle i fremstillingen.
Crossborder connectivity in Nordic-Baltic Art in the late 19th and the 20th century. Institut Suédois/ENS-Paris, 2021
The Societal Dimensions of Sámi Research, 2020
What happens when different items meet in a museum display? Does it matter which things that are ... more What happens when different items meet in a museum display? Does it matter which things that are assembled together, in what way they are arranged and labeled? Are there predominant tropes and patterns for displaying Sámi matters? Which actors are commonly brought into dialogue when Sámi issues are represented, what stories are told, and what are the means for articulating them? Moreover, what remains silenced and uncontextualized?
Se Kunst Magasin, 2020
Kunsthistoriefaget er barn av 1800-tallet. Dette er en tid da mange nasjonalstater dannes med utg... more Kunsthistoriefaget er barn av 1800-tallet. Dette er en tid da mange nasjonalstater dannes med utgangspunkt i forestillinger om nasjoner som kulturer med én felles kjerne. Altså i troen på at det finnes en monokultur, en indre essens, som blant annet kan gjenfinnes i nasjonens kunst og språk. Konkurrerende fortellinger om nasjonen som flerkulturell ble med et slikt utgangspunkt problematisk. Det er velkjent hvordan etableringen av Finnefondet, språk og skolepolitikk, samt salg og tildeling av jord for å fremme norsktalende bosetting i grenseområdene i nord utover på 1800- og 1900-tallet kan ses som deler av en strategisk fornorskingspolitikk. Kunst og kulturfeltets bidrag til å fremme ensretting av samfunn og medborgerskap, endog til fornorskning, synes å være mindre kommunisert og undersøkt. Samiske språk ble forsøksvis utradert ved hjelp av politiske virkemidler, men hva med samiske kulturuttrykk? Hvilken plass fikk samisk kunst i norsk kunsthistorie og i tilhørende nasjonale kunstinstitusjoner? Har kunsthistorien bidratt i fornorskingsprosessene? I så fall, hvordan?
The Journal of Nordic Museology, 2019
The article addresses how Sámi culture is presented by museums in Oslo. One of the findings is th... more The article addresses how Sámi culture is presented by museums in Oslo. One of the findings is that the old binary of “art” and “ethnographica” is still common in this museumscape. This reflects the historical divide between the art museum showing “European” and “Norwegian” art, and the ethnographic museum showing the arts of “the rest”. It is argued that Sámi artists, works, themes, and practices have had difficulties entering the reservoir of Norwegian “national imagery” and that such predicaments reflect persistent investments in the narrative of Norway as a monocultural nation.
Kunst og Kultur, 2019
This article takes as its starting point a recent press release from Norway’s National Art Museum... more This article takes as its starting point a recent press release from Norway’s National Art Museum: here the museum asserts a “strengthening of its collection of Sami art”. The article charts the assembling and articulation of Sami material in the museum and argues that Sami art doesn’t stand out as a special area of interest in a longer perspective. Nevertheless, the recent shift indicated by the statement may function to work reflexively upon the collection, and could make it emerge in a new light when the museum re-opens in 2021.
UiT 50, 50 kunstverk, 2018
A glass case by the entrance at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science-building, at the Uni... more A glass case by the entrance at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science-building, at the University of Tromsø, contains objects that captivates the eye and creates a desire to touch. Hard materials, like wood, has taken on the texture of smooth velvet – and rough materials, like branched horns, materialize as sleek and gleaming through the exquisite artistry of Johan Rist (b. 1937).
DIN, 2018
The watercolour From Karesjok, Tana River and Vadsøe District in Summer Clothing (1831–1833) by t... more The watercolour From Karesjok, Tana River and Vadsøe District in Summer Clothing (1831–1833) by the Danish artist Johannes Flintoe (1787–1870) has a long history of reception. Flintoe’s depiction of three young men in attires from Finnmark, has been criticized for being essentialistic and inauthentic. This paper offers alternative readings, emphasizes contexts, and shows the image as a complex historical source. The picture can also foster inquiries into aesthetics of the gákti, of how to wear the gákti, and how to judge the wearing of the gákti, by drawing on a rich Sámi epistemology.
KEYWORDS: source complexity; aesthetic judgement; Johannes Flintoe (1787–1870); Hans Mortensen Colpus (1803–1880); Anders Persen (1813–1867); John Isaksen (1818–1855)
This essay is an attempt to answer the following questions: How do contemporary artists like Geir... more This essay is an attempt to answer the following questions: How do contemporary artists like Geir Tore Holm, Outi Pieski and Lena Stenberg contribute to Sámi art history? And does their work have a reflexive effect on this history? In a broader sense, the issue is how contemporary artists contribute to Sámi art history, if they do so at all. This is a fundamental question, one that is also applicable to the discipline of art history in general. How do contemporary artists contribute to art history? If history is understood as something that has to do with the past, the question is then about the various relationships between the past and the present. This question suggests that the past, explained as history, is not a static entity, but is rather something that must constantly be interpreted from a contemporary perspective. Since history also has to do with narratives – with stories – the question is also about how contemporary artists contribute to our narratives about art.
Whose story is told in the history of art? There are many different answers to that question depe... more Whose story is told in the history of art? There are many different answers to that question depending on which art history one refers to and on the perspective applied to examine these histories. One approach is to look at the traditional framework for such examinations – which to a large degree still includes categories such as state, place and nation. Sápmi, the Sámi area, can be understood as a nation embracing four nation-‐states: Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Since the 19th century, the history of art has been considered part of the nation-state’s inventory. The production of art history has played, and still plays, a role in the constitution and the maintenance of different nation-states. How is Sámi art presented in Norwegian art history and what are the roles of the national paradigm in this presentation?
Books by Monica Grini
Sápmi, the Sámi area, is transnational; it transcends four nation states, Norway, Sweden, Finland... more Sápmi, the Sámi area, is transnational; it transcends four nation states, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Art and art history have been considered natural parts of a nation state’s inventory since the 19th century and have contributed to the production and maintenance of national identities and narratives. What is the role of the nation state in art history, and how has the national paradigm shaped the presentation of Sámi art, historically and today? Focusing on the discipline of art history in Norway, the volume exposes the prevailing representation of Sámi art, duodji, and dáidda as ethnographic material and relates it to the politics of nation building in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The book examines the representation of Sámi art, artefacts, practices, materialities, actors, concepts, and themes in Norwegian Art History, to uncover some of the disciplinary mechanisms and dominant narratives. The central method is historiography in combination with fieldwork in archives and museums, aimed at doing art historiography in the expanded field – to move beyond the traditional textual focus and question naturalized institutional and disciplinary boundaries. This is one of very few historiographical studies on the art historical discipline in Norway, and the first comprehensive monograph on the representation of Sámi art. How to cite this book: Grini, M. 2021. Samisk kunst og norsk kunsthistorie: Delvise forbindelser. Stockholm: Stockholm University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16993/bbm
Sámi Art in Norwegian Art History: A Historiographical Study.
In 1940, the art historian Harry ... more Sámi Art in Norwegian Art History: A Historiographical Study.
In 1940, the art historian Harry Fett described what he called the “the art of the Sámi” as “a chapter of its own in the art myth of humanity”. He related this art to “that of a larger group, namely the art of the peoples living in Siberia; North-America and Greenland’s great plains up toward the Arctic Ocean”. He considered the “particular and vital art of the Finnmark Plateau” an important part of the national art history. In other contexts, however, most of the objects that were categorized as Norwegian art were not placed in the same transnational arctic relations, but were instead perceived as part of European art history and thus oriented southwards. How is the story of Sámi art related to the story of Norwegian art? This study looks at the representation of Sámi art within the larger structures of the history of the discipline in Norway, and by doing so it also tries to shed light on discourses and schemas that dominate the discipline, both today and in a historical perspective.
Conference Presentations by Monica Grini
NORDIK XII (2018), Copenhagen University, Denmark. , 2018
In 1691, the drum of the Sami noaidi Poala-Ánde was confiscated by the Danish-Norwegian authoriti... more In 1691, the drum of the Sami noaidi Poala-Ánde was confiscated by the Danish-Norwegian authorities in Čáhcesuolu and eventually sent to Copenhagen. There, it was placed in the Royal Danish Art Chamber, which had been established in 1650. This collection formed a basis for the later National Museum of Denmark, which today consists of different museums. In 1825, the king’s collection of artefacts from different corners of the world was split and sent to several newly instituted special museums, among them the Royal Art Museum, from which the Ethnographical Museum later was separated. Today, the drum is still officially owned by the National Museum of Denmark, and a part of its ethnographical collection, but, since 1979, it has been on loan to Sámiid Vuorká-Dávvirat, the Sami museum in Kárášjohka.
In this paper, I will begin to trace the trajectories and translations – including the placements, travels, presentations, categorizations and re-mediations – of Poala-Ánde’s drum. I will follow its movements to, from, and between different museums, departments, places, and categories both as part of permanent collections and on loans to other museums as part of shifting or travelling exhibitions, or on long term loans such as its later incorporation into the museum in Kárášjohka.
The fact that this drum is one of the most studied Sami objects makes it particularly interesting to my project, because these previous studies inscribe it in different stories, often by both drawing upon and criticizing each other. The drum is like a Pandora’s box of interesting events or examples also due to the multiple copies and artistic interpretations of it.
Talks by Monica Grini
Henrik-Steffens lecture, 2019
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Papers by Monica Grini
Paradoxically, at the same time as Sámi drums were confiscated and, in many cases, destroyed, some were embarking on journeys as attractive collectors’ items. Today, Sámi drums are frequently “arrested” in museum exhibitions as “shamanistic devices”, often echoing old tools and tropes of othering. The article argues that there is a tendency to translate actors like Poala Ánde/Anders Poulsen and the drum into categories that immobilise them, and which prevent historical configurations to enter the narrative. It also contends that discussions about what the figures on the drumhead represent have dominated the reception and steered attention away from individual aspects of the drum and its vibrant materiality. In line with the biographical approach of the exhibition Ruoktot – The Return of the Sámi Drums by the Sámi Museum in Kárášjohka, I explore the entangled agency of the drum to help consider material aspects and concurrent meanings.
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Artikkelen løfter frem Lars Hættas miniatyrduodji, laget mens han satt fengslet på Akershus festning (1856–1867) og samlet av Etnografisk Museum i Christiania. Denne samlingen tematiserer aktuelle museumsspørsmål knyttet til gjenstander laget og ervervet i situasjoner med asymmetriske maktforhold. Artikkelen setter søkelys på betydningen av Hættas samiske kunnskapshorisont og konteksten han befant seg i, samtidig som gjenstandenes egen agens og materialitet undersøkes. Blant annet fremheves potensialet de har til å bidra til viktig minnearbeid for Hætta i fengsel. Den komplekse sosiopolitiske og historiske bakgrunnen spiller også en sentral rolle i fremstillingen.
KEYWORDS: source complexity; aesthetic judgement; Johannes Flintoe (1787–1870); Hans Mortensen Colpus (1803–1880); Anders Persen (1813–1867); John Isaksen (1818–1855)
Books by Monica Grini
In 1940, the art historian Harry Fett described what he called the “the art of the Sámi” as “a chapter of its own in the art myth of humanity”. He related this art to “that of a larger group, namely the art of the peoples living in Siberia; North-America and Greenland’s great plains up toward the Arctic Ocean”. He considered the “particular and vital art of the Finnmark Plateau” an important part of the national art history. In other contexts, however, most of the objects that were categorized as Norwegian art were not placed in the same transnational arctic relations, but were instead perceived as part of European art history and thus oriented southwards. How is the story of Sámi art related to the story of Norwegian art? This study looks at the representation of Sámi art within the larger structures of the history of the discipline in Norway, and by doing so it also tries to shed light on discourses and schemas that dominate the discipline, both today and in a historical perspective.
Conference Presentations by Monica Grini
In this paper, I will begin to trace the trajectories and translations – including the placements, travels, presentations, categorizations and re-mediations – of Poala-Ánde’s drum. I will follow its movements to, from, and between different museums, departments, places, and categories both as part of permanent collections and on loans to other museums as part of shifting or travelling exhibitions, or on long term loans such as its later incorporation into the museum in Kárášjohka.
The fact that this drum is one of the most studied Sami objects makes it particularly interesting to my project, because these previous studies inscribe it in different stories, often by both drawing upon and criticizing each other. The drum is like a Pandora’s box of interesting events or examples also due to the multiple copies and artistic interpretations of it.
Talks by Monica Grini
Paradoxically, at the same time as Sámi drums were confiscated and, in many cases, destroyed, some were embarking on journeys as attractive collectors’ items. Today, Sámi drums are frequently “arrested” in museum exhibitions as “shamanistic devices”, often echoing old tools and tropes of othering. The article argues that there is a tendency to translate actors like Poala Ánde/Anders Poulsen and the drum into categories that immobilise them, and which prevent historical configurations to enter the narrative. It also contends that discussions about what the figures on the drumhead represent have dominated the reception and steered attention away from individual aspects of the drum and its vibrant materiality. In line with the biographical approach of the exhibition Ruoktot – The Return of the Sámi Drums by the Sámi Museum in Kárášjohka, I explore the entangled agency of the drum to help consider material aspects and concurrent meanings.
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Artikkelen løfter frem Lars Hættas miniatyrduodji, laget mens han satt fengslet på Akershus festning (1856–1867) og samlet av Etnografisk Museum i Christiania. Denne samlingen tematiserer aktuelle museumsspørsmål knyttet til gjenstander laget og ervervet i situasjoner med asymmetriske maktforhold. Artikkelen setter søkelys på betydningen av Hættas samiske kunnskapshorisont og konteksten han befant seg i, samtidig som gjenstandenes egen agens og materialitet undersøkes. Blant annet fremheves potensialet de har til å bidra til viktig minnearbeid for Hætta i fengsel. Den komplekse sosiopolitiske og historiske bakgrunnen spiller også en sentral rolle i fremstillingen.
KEYWORDS: source complexity; aesthetic judgement; Johannes Flintoe (1787–1870); Hans Mortensen Colpus (1803–1880); Anders Persen (1813–1867); John Isaksen (1818–1855)
In 1940, the art historian Harry Fett described what he called the “the art of the Sámi” as “a chapter of its own in the art myth of humanity”. He related this art to “that of a larger group, namely the art of the peoples living in Siberia; North-America and Greenland’s great plains up toward the Arctic Ocean”. He considered the “particular and vital art of the Finnmark Plateau” an important part of the national art history. In other contexts, however, most of the objects that were categorized as Norwegian art were not placed in the same transnational arctic relations, but were instead perceived as part of European art history and thus oriented southwards. How is the story of Sámi art related to the story of Norwegian art? This study looks at the representation of Sámi art within the larger structures of the history of the discipline in Norway, and by doing so it also tries to shed light on discourses and schemas that dominate the discipline, both today and in a historical perspective.
In this paper, I will begin to trace the trajectories and translations – including the placements, travels, presentations, categorizations and re-mediations – of Poala-Ánde’s drum. I will follow its movements to, from, and between different museums, departments, places, and categories both as part of permanent collections and on loans to other museums as part of shifting or travelling exhibitions, or on long term loans such as its later incorporation into the museum in Kárášjohka.
The fact that this drum is one of the most studied Sami objects makes it particularly interesting to my project, because these previous studies inscribe it in different stories, often by both drawing upon and criticizing each other. The drum is like a Pandora’s box of interesting events or examples also due to the multiple copies and artistic interpretations of it.