General 2 — Halvor Skiftun Digernes

Plate

in 2024, I had a highly enjoyable commissioned work and project in collaboration with Andreas Liebe Delsett and Bodø 2024.
📷 Credits: 1,Marthe Vannebo

Back of plate

The following text is a somewhat abridged version of Andreas’ post about the project:

“At the celebratory luncheon in the Glasshuset in 1992, bespoke charger plates were produced, each reflecting the menu. It was therefore only fitting that we create new plates for our luncheon, which in turn afforded us an opportunity to reflect on how food culture has evolved. Most significantly, it allowed us to consider how we might shape the food culture of the future.

As early as the 1970s, Astri Riddervold observed that food culture and the local resource base were beginning to diverge, with an increasing prevalence of imported and industrially produced food. This is a trend that has only accelerated since 1992. Our foremost contemporary challenge must be to re-anchor food culture in the local resource base. Doing so would enable us to address a wide range of related issues, from public health and environmental concerns to loneliness and the loss of meaning.

With this in mind, I contacted ceramicist Halvor Skiftun Digernes at Studio Håndkraft, who has engaged with related themes in his work. Together, we developed a concept for how these plates could be designed, with Halvor utilising raw materials sourced from the Nordland region. In this way, we aimed to create a series of plates that carry the region’s history into the future, inviting people to gather around them to share and create.

The result is a set of twenty plates made from, among other things, blue clay from Bodø, marble from Fauske, pyrite and copper ore from Sulitjelma, reindeer doe bone from Maret Ravdna Buljo, kelp (a by-product) from the Lofoten Seaweed Company, and the ash remaining after burning the prow of a Straumsbåt and a barrel used in the production of traditionally salted coalfish in Saltstraumen…

Test

The boat prow and barrel were donated by Odd Stenersen, one of many who have worked tirelessly for years to preserve traditionally salted coalfish and other culinary traditions from Nordland. My intention is for these plates to serve as vessels that carry history with them and transport us into the future in a manner firmly rooted in the local resource base.”