Tunsteinen (The Yard Stone)
Visningsrommet USF, Bergen
30 Jan – 8 Feb 2026
“To this stone one gave of all new sustenance produced at the farm. When a cow had a new calf, ‘Granne’ had to have the first drops of milk, and at Christmas it was given beer and porridge, in short: the farm’s inhabitants had to give of everything they made, if they were to have fortune on their side.”
As told at the farm Oftedal in Bakke, Vest-Agder, 1878
There exist many old stories in Norway about stones that were alive, and customs that suggest that people of the past had meaningful relationships with stones, trees and other non-human creatures. Is it possible to return to this way of thinking today? And if a stone has agency of its own, how does one cultivate good relations with a being so foreign to us? How does one become a good neighbour?
Tunsteinen (The Yard Stone) has these questions at its core. The focus of the exhibition is a film cycle made up of four "seasonal chapters". These revolve around a stone that sits in the yard of an old smallholding in Hallingdal, which the artist has known all her life. It is only the last few years, however, that she has treated the stone as a “neighbour".
Through attentive takes of the environment around the stone, the films encourage us to slow down and observe the natural cycles and non-human life around us. A voice over speaks of the artist's connection to the place where the yard stone sits, with references to old customs that cultivated relationships with special stones—for example, through making offerings—as well as her (sometimes fumbling) attempts to make the stone "speak" based on these.
Photography and wood works complement the films and pose questions about belonging, our connection to nature, and how one can become part of a place through an animistic understanding of the world. Some works highlight the artist’s research into old stone traditions in Norway, which is expanded upon in the publication Becoming the Forest V, and available in the exhibition.
Other works refer to older land settlement customs that hint at a more relational and respectful approach to the environment. Among the customs we still know of, one could ask the land wights for permission to settle by shouting out a question and waiting for an answer, an answer that could come in many forms. One could also place an axe out three Thursdays in a row. If it was moved, one would have to find another place to build. If one wanted to be more forceful, one would carry fire around a place three times to chase the land wights away.
There is much environmental knowledge contained in these old traditions. A primstav—an old Norwegian wooden calendar—hints at a cyclical understanding of time that was made clear in the physical act of turning the primstav every six months. But what happens when the seasons and weather patterns, on which the calendar is based, are no longer reliable? Through artistic practice, the artist works to "update" and reinterpret customs of the past, and through these ask whether they are still relevant to the present.
To accompany the exhibition, Earthbound Stones and Endless Horizons – A Becoming the Forest reading event was held at at Tekstallmenningen on 6th Feb.
Pictured above (all 2025-26):
1. Exhibition flyer
2. Tunsteinen (Vår) / The Yard Stone (Spring), video projection
3. The gallery from the outside.
4-5. Overview, first room.
6. De Jordfaste og de Underjordiske / The Earthbound and the Subterranean, printed paper, nails.
7-8. Tunsteinen (Vår/Sommer/Høst/Vinter) / The Yard Stone (Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter), C-type and inkjet photos, varnished walnut frames, wallpaper paste
9. Overview.
10-12. No title, whittled birch and alder twigs from Sletto.
13. Overview.
14. Byggji e attfør få de kaste øksa ifrå!, carved axe, mugwort.
15. Norsk sætertradisjon / Norwegian pasture traditions, Inkjet prints, looped video.
16. Primstav (vintersiden) / Calendar stick (winter side), linden, wax.
17-18. Byggji e attfør få de kaste øksa ifrå!, close up.
19-26. Four projections, from left to right: Tunsteinen (Vår) / The Yard Stone (Spring), Tunsteinen (Sommer) / The Yard Stone (Summer), Tunsteinen (Høst) / The Yard Stone (Autumn), Tunsteinen (Vinter) / The Yard Stone (Winter).
27. Event flyer
The exhibition is a result of the artists’ PhD in artistic practice, based in the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway University, London. It has been supported by the Norwegian Arts Council, Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 863944 THINK DEEP).