TANYA BUSSE
Tanya Busse’s work Wind Sings to Wire consists of dozens of lightbulbs connected to the architectural space of Spriten Kunsthall via industrial cables, with the flickering lights suggesting interference from another time and place. This flickering is suggesting a signal transmitting data from the year 2030, a critical milestone often cited for the year when the irreversible climate change happens and the tipping point for the global sustainability goals, including the Paris Agreement and Renewable Energy initiatives. Early last year, the Norwegian government approved a plan to connect the Hammerfest liquified natural gas plant to the power grid, with the installation’s beat and pulse based on electricity forecasts, energy predictions, and futurological mappings of that plan. The year 2030 also marks a significant transformation for Melkøya, an island in the Barents Sea, where the large processing facility for liquefied fossil gas from the Snøhvit oil and gas field will be fully electrified.
The planned infrastructure expansions in northern Norway pose extensive risks to the environment and indigenous lands. These plans carve an entirely new spatial geography while many factors remain unpredictable, including electricity prices, the impact of thawing permafrost on water supply and infrastructure, climate migration, and other unseen forces. Remarkably, concerns about the climate impact and ongoing violations of Sami rights and the colonization of indigenous territories are currently being completely disregarded.
Supporting the transition of Melkøya requires an extensive network of electric grids, power lines, roads, wind turbine parks, and hydro dams. Busse’s installation reflects the flickering and weak prospects of future possibilities, inviting the audience to immerse themselves in the site-specific installation to experience light as information – a message from the future symbolizing ambiguity and uncertainty. We rely on advanced technology every day, aware that these structures may fail us, just as human factors can fail. This implies a loss of control and a fragility in our established order. In the Telemark region, there are currently 17 dams and an enormous demand for megawatts, especially with a new hyperscale data center on the horizon. When we make plans for the future, stability and hope for a better life are always the goals. How can we ensure prosperity and comfort when so many factors of instability and scientifically proven concerns are ignored?
If we could send a message to the miners of Søve Gruve in the 1930s or 1940s from our current times, what would it be?
Tanya Busse (b. 1981 New Brunswick, Canada, lives and works in Tromsø, Norway) is a visual artist working across the mediums of moving-image, installation and photography. Her practice spans moving-image, installation, and photography to explore the intersection between representations of nature and the presence of industrial or post-human. Her work has been shown at Office of Contemporary Art in Oslo, the 13th Turku Biennial of Art in Finland, the Toronto Biennial of Art, the Nanaimo Art Gallery in British Columbia Gallery 44 Center for Photography in Toronto Canada, Mumbai Art Room India, Podium Gallery, Oslo and Vaga Center for Art and Knowledge, Sao Miguel, Azores, Röda Sten Konsthall in Gothenburg, Sweden amongst others. She is a co-director of the collaborative platforms New Mineral Collective and Mondo Books.
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