The Northern Sami term várddus can be used for a place with a wide view or which is visible from a long distance, and the series’ Norwegian and English titles also point to hope. Materiality is Juliussen’s starting point for creating new perspectives. Time-consuming techniques are an important aspect of her work, where slow and meticulous handwork is a tribute to nature, materials and traditions. Through repetition, deconstruction and wonder, the artist wants to see the materials in a new context.
Textile forms composed of triangular, embroidered textile pieces “stitched” together with birch sticks form the installation Várddus – Vy – View III. On the opposite side, the visible fastening threads form a floss. All eight textiles hang separately from the ceiling in the Overlyssalen.
Várddus – Vy – View IV consists of a series of objects that appear as hybrids of both human and animal extremities. One end of a leg shape is finished with a coiled tie, at the other end a fur-covered reindeer antler protrudes.
During the exhibition period, Aslaug M. Juliussen launches an exhibition catalog with a foreword by Charis Gullickson, curator of Juliussen’s exhibition Intersections at the Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum in 2018.
Aslaug Magdalena Juliussen (b. 1953, Lodegat/Lødingen, Nordland) lives and works in Tromsø. She is educated at the Statens Håndverk- og Kunstindustriskole in Oslo and was assistant to the textile artist Synnøve Anker Aurdal in the years 1980-82. Juliussen has had a number of solo exhibitions at, among others, the Anchorage Museum in Alaska, Blaafarveværket, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Nordnorsk Kunstnersenter and Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, and participated in a number of group exhibitions at home and abroad. She has carried out many public decorations and worked scenographically on a number of productions. Juliussen’s work has been purchased by, among others, the Stavanger Art Museum, the National Museum, the Northern Norwegian Art Museum, the Sami Parliament’s art collection, KORO, the Norwegian Cultural Council and the Purchase Fund for Norwegian Arts and Crafts for KODE. Over the years, she has received a number of grants and was awarded the State’s Guaranteed Income for artists in 2010, as well as awarded the Norske Kunsthândverkeres Award of Honor in 2011. Recently, in 2023, she was awarded a work grant by Sámi Dáiddačehpiid Searvi/Sámi Artists’ Association.
