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Homesick Language 2009/ Mad as Art 2007

Their language is mad as art, but it expresses to perfection what they mean
Knut Hamsun about the language of north-Norwegian (post-colonial) people in the novel Wayfarers

(my translation)

«Homesick language» followed the project «Mad as Art», which was a research project.
In «Mad as Art», I started out with the idea that there were several similarities between the way languages and environments/made places behave and develop. We change our languages as the need to express different things changes, we borrow words from other languages or other social groups, we use nouns as verbs and so on. We also make changes in the places where we live, according to different needs. The floor scrub that became a door stopper, wedged under the door blade, for instance, is translated from one use to another. The green vase that was thrown out because purple is more fashionable, is another change.
But what I found out, is that we are much more creative in the use of our languages than we are in making the environments work for us. The Neighbour Present In Our Minds prevents us from acting out to much, and so home made solutions are more easily accepted if they have an air of temporality about them.
For instance, if you whip up an extra table from a couple of stools when unexpected coffee guests arrive, it is creative, but if said table is your permanent table, it is not so good.
Spare time places and recreational places are often excepted from the rules laid out by the Neighbour Present In Our Minds: cabins, huts, back yards. The places that are trancessions between wild and cultivated.  Also places with an unclear identity.
We can call these home made solutions primitive solutions, as they cover needs as they emerge.
In the area I come from, the north of Norway, in the Sámi communities (the indigenous group to which I belong) recreational/home and /work spaces are not so strongly divided and you see a lot of these home made solutions. (flight body translated to snowmobile garage. Truck dug down and converted to garage).
The potential of the primitive is released to a larger extent.

In Homesick language, I started working in my workshop with what I had found in Mad as Art.
(The MaA-project, as a research project, ended up in two articles and a workshop group, School of Dissent, which still is working.)
Trouble was, the Mad as Art- solutions all emerged from situations where the need was stronger than the conventions, and the result was decided by what materials were available.
I could not fake needs in my workshop, it would be a bit pointless, so I decided to adopt the northern/Sámi physical language of objects, the grammar of the aesthetics. Everything is very un-sleek. There is a thought about aesthetics, but it is not spoken out loud.
Using only used/found materials were easier, this is what I always do.
From this, the series Homesick Language was created, a series of eleven objects.
I discovered during my work that when it comes to aesthetics, a lot is allowed, but lines and angels have to be straight, and there should be no traces of glue/production on the finished product, in other words, factory production should be mimicked. Straight angels is very easy to obtain in a factory, but difficult in a small workshop.
I think this mimicry is part of what is preventing us from fully realizing the potential of the primitive. Together with magazines, designers and stylists, this is part of the force that is taking away peoples confidence, when it comes to finding solutions that serves the individual and the individual needs.

I put together a series of objects, using what I had at hand and using no complicated machinery. It was also in some cases, a goal that the objects should be long lasting, but not permanent if not desired, so some of the objects are easy to take apart. If you can’t see the screws, there are none. The lashing strap table has no glue, no screws. Still, all objects are fully functional 

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