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Mars 26, 2006

Sámi in Norway

Some readers of this blog will know a lot about the Sámi people, some will know nothing. I write here for the latter group, as any description of Norway and other northern countries would be incomplete without touching upon this topic, and I'd like to get the basic history across. My source book is The Sámi People - Traditions in Transition by Veli-Pekka Lehtola (2004 edition).

The Sámi are an indigenous ethnic minority, with their own culture, living in the northern parts of four neighbouring countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola peninsula of Russia. There are between 60 and 100 thousand of them, 40-50 thousand living in Norway (half of these in the province of Finnmark). Within the Sámi community there are many different groups, each with their own language. Davvi Sámegiella has the most speakers: 17 thousand, with 10 thousand of these living in Norway.

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Posted by barry at 3:50 FM

Mars 19, 2006

Munch: Woodcarving and Icecarving

Edvard Munch's craftmanship extended far beyond oil painting. In the late 1890s he created highly experimental woodcarvings that greatly influenced German expressionists. He adapted printing plates, mixed colours on plates, used randomness, etc. Often these woodcarvings were of motifs that appear in his best-known paintings, e.g. The Sick Child.

Earlier in the 1890s, he worked on many of these motifs in icecarving. Pictured above is the Ice Scream, which as you can see is a version of his most famous motif, executed on ice.

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Posted by barry at 10:14 FM

Mars 12, 2006

Tomba Emmanuelle

Bizarrely, this is me (on the left) being interviewed for television. I was at a tourist site in the Oslo suburb of Slemdal and a crew from TV Norge were picking people off as they exited. The site in question was Tomba Emmanuelle, the mausoleum containing the ashes of Emanuel Vigeland, brother of Gustav.

It is a little-visited location, and for that reason they only open it for four hours on a Sunday. I have been there four times now. On this occasion, one of my sisters was visiting me, and I included it on her itinerary. The mother, father and daughter from my house came along too, so we had two families.

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Posted by barry at 7:18 EM

Mars 6, 2006

Scream Scene (attempt)

The scene depicted in Scandinavia's most famous painting, Munch's Skrik (the Scream, as seen here), is from a road overlooking the city of Oslo, the Oslofjord and Hovedøya, from Ekeberg hill. The painting shows the exact spot where Munch says he experienced a "scream through nature," so, curious tourist that I am, I went out to Ekeberg to see if I could find it. A couple of artist friends of mine, Per Jonas and Heidi, live out there, and Per Jonas told me where to go to seek Munch. The first picture here is the best view of the city you can get from the road, so that was a good place to begin the quest, a place called Brannfjellveien, "the fire mountain way."

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Posted by barry at 7:21 EM