The early summer weather conditions this year paved the way for a fruitful September of MUSHROOM growth in Stokkøya. Armed with this knowledge upon our arrival, we were immediately drawn to the idea of going mushroom foraging. Our ventures into the woods not only yielded an abundance of golden-hued fungi, their vibrant colour beckoning from afar, but also enriched our understanding of the entire process of foraging.

 This experience played a pivotal role in our residency, making us aware of the profound respect one must hold for nature to thrive in the unique conditions of Stokkøya. Take the WEATHER, for instance: when the sun shines, the landscape bursts into vivid colours, and the clear clean air gives a high-definition quality to everything in sight. But when the weather changes, and it does so very often, it can transform the environment into an absolute hellscape. This unpredictability makes a clear distinction between man and nature. While we can rely on our neighbours for assistance or maybe even trust them with our secrets, we cannot expect nature to cater to our desires. We must yield to its capricious, powerful and sometimes benevolent whims.

It is within this duality, the interplay between paradise and inferno, that our work during this residency has taken shape. Mushrooms and weather conditions are just one example of this duality. Even the very ground beneath, in many areas made of CLAY, carries its own dual nature—it can be untrustworthy and trigger landslides, but it can also serve as a building material for shelter. It was precisely in clay that we found a perfect embodiment of this duality. By blending clay with hay and sand, we recreated an age-old material and fashioned sculptures that not only mimic the landscape but also adapt to the prevailing weather conditions, their linear forms permitting the wind to pass through.

FIRE stands as another exemplar of this duality—it offers essential warmth and illumination for human survival, yet it also holds the potential for destruction. We perceived it as a symbol of community gathering, maybe even as a natural phenomenon that man learned to manipulate for its own benefit, and that goes further from being a mere survival element. Its crackling sound and its dim light provide us with a safe space where stories that might remain untold elsewhere are shared.

STORY TELLING itself bares this dichotomy – stories are told from a personal perspective and can be used to share useful information, as well as they can be used as a way to manipulate truth benefiting the story teller.

We chose a secluded location to show the result of our work during the month of the residency —a secret cliffside where one can gather around a fire to share myths, legends, or personal experiences and that can only be found either by mere chance or by word of mouth.

One of Stokkoya's defining features is the importance placed on physical presence and oral storytelling. Here, each individual plays a vital role in the island's functioning, in stark contrast to the modern trend of relying on online information sharing. This environment encourages us to seek more grounded forms of communication and respect.

From the ground up, is used here not only as the English idiom to express to start something from the beginning, or the idea of wholeness, but also to underline the idea of revealing something that was hidden before, and was taken from the ground up.

We do not wish for our work to serve as a warning beacon, as in ancient times. Instead, we aspire for it to be a beacon of invitation, drawing people together, much like mushrooms nestled in the earth, sharing knowledge through their intricate root systems. Our aim is to create a safe haven for storytelling, fostering a sense of community through the circulation of information and trust-building.