"Colonisation"

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An assisting collaboration with Bruce Chao during his residency at Rejmyre Art Lab in Rejmyre, 2014.

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The project aimed to examine how humans interact with, inhabit, and shape natural environments.

By using prehistoric boat-building techniques to construct lightweight, woven vessels directly from the surrounding ecosystem, the artists created a dialogue between primitive, low-impact human presence and the heavily industrialized, resource-extracted landscape of Rejmyre's historic glassworks and forestry. It explored themes of displacement, colonization of land, movement across territory, and the living memory embedded within natural materials.

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When Bruce Chao created his work Coracles (prehistoric/indigenous-inspired basket boats woven from local natural materials in the forests around Rejmyre), sculptor Olav Lunde was a key figure in the practical and craft execution on site. Chao contributed the concept centered on primitive craft techniques, memory, and landscape, while Lunde brought his deep local knowledge of materials, the northern Östergötland forests, and sculptural construction.