(Sinne) Käsin at the Vigeland Museum is Åsne Kummeneje Mellem’s most comprehensive exhibition to date. The title has a double meaning: In Englsih the Kven word käsin can translate as “by hand” or “in the direction of”, while sinne means “there”. When the words are combined, the new meaning “over there” arises.

In the exhibition Mellem explores käsityö, the traditional Kven craft which can be characterised by the pragmatic use of natural materials, often in combination with reuse and creative solutions. The exploration of this everyday craft is a mainstay of her artistry, where she continuously investigates what käsityö has been, what it is today, and how forgotten traditions can be brought back to light through new artistic expression.

Mellem’s works are shown in three of the Vigeland Museum’s exhibition rooms. In Room 7 we find the work I Never Learned my Mother Tongue (2021), where large quantities of wool textiles spill onto the floor out of a small box made of wood and glass. The wool fabric is plant-dyed according to old customs, with rock lichen, which Mellem has garnered on Kven land. She states that rock lichen, kivijäkälä, grows densely in certain areas, and can vary in colour and thickness: In some places it grows in light, thin slivers, in others in thick dark layers, as though it is growing on top of itself. Nevertheless, it produces a deep, brown colour in the wool fabric. Mellem describes these observations in her publication Oppiit/Omateko (2023). The book can be seen as a personal handbook on käsityö, a collection of the artist’s own experiences with the craft.

In Room 11 Pehmeä paaro is shown, a work that is both monumental and soft, and can resemble a waterfall made of wool in natural shades that cascades from the ceiling down to the floor. The colour is repeated from the work I Never Learned my Mother Tongue, but also blends into yellow and green tones. In this work juniper, kataja, is used, which has traditionally had multiple applications, both as medicinal plant, wood product or Christmas tree in northern spheres where other types of conifers are lacking.

Vekki is found in Room 12 and consists of tuohi, or birch bark. Some of the material has been garnered by the artist and is combined with recycled bark from a turf roof in Karlsøy. The bark has served an important building material in the past, also in the Kven tradition, where it was used among other things as insulation in walls and roofs, or in weaving small artefacts. Mellem describes working with bark as a meticulous process, where she tears off large sheets before dividing them up layer by layer. The woven idiom issued from an original plan to create works by braiding the bark. It was not possible to learn this from a Kven perspective, however, and she ended up by introducing the material into weaving instead. “It made no difference whether it was braided or woven. It demonstrates in any case that the knowledge is gone”, Mellem writes in Oppiit/ Omateko.

Pehmeä paaro and Vekki both have Kven titles. Mellem views language as the backbone of any culture, where the language – the immaterial element – is decisive for the transfer of knowledge about the craft – the material element. She therefore introduces Kven words and concepts into her artistic practice. I Never Learned my Mother Tongue stands out as a form of conciliation, a verbalised grieving over a language and a craft that is highly threatened. The work is fundamentally critical and aimed at the politics of Norwegianization that has contributed to undermining the transfer of knowledge about the Kven language and culture.

With käsityö Mellem seeks to create an arena for dialogue and shed light on the generational gap in the transfer of knowledge. For many years she has delved into the Kven craft traditions with a desire to revitalise and further develop traditions that are on the cusp of disappearing. By inquiring around among the Kven people about materials, techniques and practices, she has accumulated a personal archive of stories. In this way her practice is connected to Kven culture, and to places, landscapes and resources. The traditional element is transferred to contemporary art in the gaps which she must fill in for the lost techniques and knowledge.

For Mellem käsityö is more than a traditional craft technique, it is a way of expressing a sense of belonging. Because the consequences of a lost language are societal, but the consequences of a lost mother tongue are personal. (Sinne) käsin means “over there”, and Mellem makes her way slowly between what once was, what is and what shall be. Over there.