PROSPECTING: A GEOLOGICAL
SURVEY OF GREYS II
2016
Mixed media installation
UV print on foil and gloss laminated C print on aluminum of photomicrographs of rock-core samples, Inkjet with embossing, HD–video, sculpture, objects
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Commissioned by the Dark Ecology project with the support of the Arts Council Norway’s Cultural fond and fond for Sound and Image, the Norwegian State exhibition grant, the Association of Norwegian Visual Artist (NBK), Hordaland Municipality and the City of Bergen. The project was conducted in cooperation with Hilde Methi and Sonic Acts, the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU), Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder (LKV) and Arctic Drilling AS.
'Prospecting: A Geological Survey of Greys' is a two-part project that appropriates the scientific geological methods of extracting, analysing and organising mineral specimens. The work attempts to examine drilled rock-core samples beyond their commercial viability to identify the bedrock’s gray tones. By initiating a prospecting drilling of what geologists say is 2500 million-year-old metamorphic gneiss, at Prestefjellet outside Kirkenes (northern Norway), rock-core samples of ancient basement rock was extracted.
The first part of the project involved a 170 metres’ deep diamond rock-core drilling. Followed by a site-specific installation visualising a temporary juxtaposition in the landscape with the residues of the drilling: a massive cylindrical column of rock cores shadowed by its negative, an adjacent 7-centimetre hole in the basement rock. The installation was presented at Prestefjellet for the last journey "Knowledge from the Underground" of The Dark Ecology project, from May to October 2016.
For the second part of the project, Jonsson continued her collaboration with the Geological Survey of Norway. Where she at their laboratory in Trondheim conducted various analyses and microscopy of the rock-cores from Prestefjellet. The results of her exploration is presented through photomicrographs, sculpture, objects and video in a exhibition where the stone's microstructure and mineralogical composition meets a survey of colour perception and optical refraction between spectator, object and space.