(2024)

Čuʹǩǩ is Skolt-Sami for a small transportable box to keep valuable keepsakes in. In the Ä´vv (Skolt-Sami Museum) collections, there’s this small box made out of dark-blue painted wood. It’s quite striking. I decided to make it in clay maybe hoping to preserve some of its shine. It will never exceed the original but that’s not the point. The point is to make an item for personal valuable keepsakes.

On the outside, on the upper-rim there is a drawing of a childhood-memory from Russenes where my grandparents had their cabin. It’s sawing birch-wood with my grandfather, gathering cloudberries with my grandmother. Beneath the drawing, on the lower rim there’s that poem by Walt Withman There Was A Child Went Forth. It continues on the inside of the lid. On the other side of the lid there’s a drawing of, maybe an emblem of the midnight sun.