Half Hidden

Anne Haaning

This exposition conveys the final results of Anne Haaning's artistic research project Half Hidden, which she has been conducting as a PhD Candidate with Oslo National Academy of the Arts in collaboration with the Academy of Arts, UiT The Arctic University of Norway and the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme. Through the prism of the mineral cryolite, extracted from Greenland by Denmark in the years 1857–1985, the project seeks to uncover hidden structures and histories imbedded in technology. It has done so by exploring analogical correspondences at a specific intersection of technology, myth and colonialism; the method it employs to this end is an investigation of the ontological context of digital image production. Denmark extracted the rare mineral cryolite in Greenland between the mid nineteenth and the late twentieth centuries. Essential to the mass production of aluminium, cryolite proved critical for the shipbuilding and aviation industries during World Wars I and II. The mineral was so important that the cryolite mine was put under US administration during the German occupation of Denmark in World War II. But this history has been virtually erased from the collective memory and consciousness of the Danes. Today, the flooded mine is a scar in the Greenlandic landscape covered by a pervasive mirroring water plane concealing a significant part of the Danish-Greenlandic colonial history.

This exposition conveys the final results of Anne Haaning's artistic research project Half Hidden, which she has been conducting as a PhD Candidate with Oslo National Academy of the Arts in collaboration with the Academy of Arts, UiT The Arctic University of Norway and the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme.

Through the prism of the mineral cryolite, extracted from Greenland by Denmark in the years 1857–1985, the project seeks to uncover hidden structures and histories imbedded in technology. It has done so by exploring analogical correspondences at a specific intersection of technology, myth and colonialism; the method it employs to this end is an investigation of the ontological context of digital image production.

Denmark extracted the rare mineral cryolite in Greenland between the mid nineteenth and the late twentieth centuries. Essential to the mass production of aluminium, cryolite proved critical for the shipbuilding and aviation industries during World Wars I and II. The mineral was so important that the cryolite mine was put under US administration during the German occupation of Denmark in World War II. But this history has been virtually erased from the collective memory and consciousness of the Danes. Today, the flooded mine is a scar in the Greenlandic landscape covered by a pervasive mirroring water plane concealing a significant part of the Danish-Greenlandic colonial history.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you,

Mike Sperlinger and Nina Wakeford, for being so generous, inspiring and brilliant at uncovering my blind spots. You have been solid during a sometimes very nebulous process.

Adam Carsten Pedersen, Helen Nishijo and Gudrun Krabbe, for your time, expertise, strong arms and unwavering support. This project grew bigger and heavier than expected – literally – because of you.

Isambard Khroustaliov, for your ears and for making my work sound so good.

For the many illuminating conversations along the way which have informed this work: Sara Emilie Anker-Møller, Brynjar Bandlien, Juno Berthelsen, Duncan Campbell, Nivi Christensen, Sidsel Christensen, Ben Clement, Frederic Colette, Matias Danbolt, Markus Degerman, Sebastian De La Cour, Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld, James Gormley, Hilde Hauan Johnsen, Hanna Horsberg Hansen, Runa Johannesen, Toril Johannesen, Stine Hebert, Li Jönsson, Karen Kramer, Eva La Cour, Per Martinsen, Solmund Nystabakk, Joseph Noonan-Ganley, Jet Pascua, Elizabeth Price, Alexander Rishaug, Gro Sarauw, Frank Sejersen, Arne Skaug Olsen, Berit Norbakken Solset, Lisa Torell, Anna Vestergaard, Anne E. Worthington, Naja Blytmann Trondhjem, Dorine Van Meel, Isak Winkel Holm, Juliane Zelwies, Tinne Zenner.

Agnes Haaning, Christian Haaning, Mads Haaning, Niels Holger Jensen, Anne Grethe Ragborg, Erik Rasmussen, and Anne Lise Villemoes, for your continued support.

Jørgen Christensen, for welcoming us in your home in Arsuk and for taxiing us back and forth to Ivittuut in your boat. Thank you Jørgen Lindø, Bjarne and Emil from the Joint Arctic Command, Grønnedal for letting us stay at your military base and for driving us down the old gravel road past the musk oxen to the mine. Your generosity has been essential to the success of this project.

KHIO and Academy of Arts, UiT, for endorsing the transfer of my project to KHIO’s PhD programme. Special thanks to Therese Veier, Kjell Magne Mælen and Hanne Hammer Stien, for taking such good care of me during this handover and particularly since the pandemic hit.

Norwegian Artistic Research Programme and especially all the research fellows, for your feedback and investment in my project.

Kit Leunbach and Søren Fjeldsø for trusting and encouraging me in my work on Half Hidden from day one and for the opportunity to show it in Den Frie. Thank you Dina Vester Feilberg for your continued support and engagement with the project.

Leif Magne Tangen and Vsevolod Kovalevskij, for the opportunity to wrap up this project in Tromsø Kunstforening’s historical spaces, and for extending the invitation to the other side of lockdown.

To The Danish National Archives, for access to the archival material that is at the centre of this project.

Danish Arts Foundation, Knud Højgaards Fond, Danish Art Workshops and Fond for Lyd og Bilde, for your support and thank you Anne Marie Telmányi født Carl-Nielsen’s Fond and Danish Arts Foundation for recognising and awarding the result.

Neil Bennun, for your unyielding presence on this journey.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS