tangles
Icelandic wool, lupin stem fibers, lupin flowers
The purple lupins (Lupinus nootkatensis) have been designated as invasive in Iceland, causing “changes to ecosystems and threatening biodiversity” (Icelandic Institute of Natural History, 2024). Formerly introduced to combat soil erosion, the plant is now spreading throughout the territory, at the risk of encroaching on native ecosystems. Photographed and loved by tourists, it is sometimes less popular with local communities, “the relationship between people and the lupin in Iceland [offering] much to untangle” (Kuprian, 2016).
My first weeks in Blönduós were dedicated to walking, sensing, and attuning to a new landscape. I documented my visits with photography, sound recordings and videos. It was while walking on a hill, turning from green to lupin purple, that I was intrigued with the plant. I started talking to the locals to understand their relationship with it. That is when I learnt that it was tied with displacements, otherness, and even nationalism.
Through this work, I wanted to talk about the dichotomy between native and exotic, the invasive nature of the plant and its different perceptions. I spent a lot of time with the plant foraging it, processing it, extracting fibers, using it for dye. Different parts of the lupine were integrated into Icelandic wool, to blend into the local material. Plant fiber invades animal fiber to create different hybrid materials, through spinning, dyeing, and felting.
These reflections are amplified in public space, with an invasive installation. The thread is crocheted onto a fence, slowly making its way into the landscape. I myself am introduced here, a stranger and taking my place, at the risk of disturbing the initial order of things. This project was my first opportunity to make-with a landscape in which I am a foreigner. Therefore, I found myself connected to the lupin, an introduced plant, both helping and threatening.
My creative approach is informed by the research that I am pursuing as part of a master's degree in design, which is interested in the deep and sustained relationship that we create with wild urban spaces. Walking, foraging, sensitive observations and creating with materials collected from the site act as the main methods of engagement for creating a close relationship with the landscape. This approach, inspired by Land art and craft practices, allows us to envisage, through art and design, futures where humans are decentered and where the city aspires to better coexistence with the more-than-humans. The results of my work are, most of the time, surprises and come from explorations where the materials collected have their own agency. My practice aims to be non-extractivist, with a spirit of making-with what is available in the territory.
Icelandic Institute of Natural History (2024). Alaskalúpína (Lupinus nootkatensis). https://www.ni.is/is/biota/plantae/tracheophyta/magnoliopsida/fabaceae/alaskalupina-lupinus-nootkatensis
Kuprian, A. (2018). Negotiating contested landscapes: The lupin controversy in Iceland. Northern studies, 49, 25-37.
Kuprian, A. (2018). Negotiating contested landscapes: The lupin controversy in Iceland. Northern studies, 49, 25-37.
