September 21 – December 1, 2024
I Lay My Ear Against the Weave’s Ear (2019–ongoing) is a series of works, including a newly commissioned piece, where Elina transforms her grandmother’s weaving tools into musical instruments. For this new work, the artist presents an existing instrument generated from the rátnomuorat (loom) and created two new instruments from a dorte (a spinning wheel) and vikšamuorra (a hand-held tool to skein the yarn after it has been spun).
Most of her practice focuses on exploring the frictions and connections between the female body and voice, as well as her dual Norwegian and Sámi heritage, to address processes of identity formation, asymmetric power relations, social representation, and demands for sovereignty and self-determination.
Using DIY technology and sensors developed with the support of Notam, the Norwegian centre for technology, art, and music, visitors can activate the three sculptures through the movements of their hands and bodies.
The exhibition includes new work commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art. The presentation is made possible with the generous support of EQ Bank, the Office for Contemporary Art Norway, and the Women Leading Initiative.
Bio
Elina Waage Mikalsen (b.1992; she/her) is a Sámi-Norwegian interdisciplinary artist and musician from Romssa/Tromsø, Sápmi/Norway. She works with sound, textile, performance, text and installation. In her sound practice, she often mixes field recordings, voice, electronics and home-built instruments. She seeks to create sonic spaces that exist somewhere between reality and fantasy, where sound is like a time machine that causes time to collapse and sets both past and future in motion.
By collecting fragments of stories, materials and practices she works with what lies in between. The holes that the Norwegian colonization of Sápmi has created in the form of loss of language and cultural heritage have become a starting point for imagining what these holes might represent, what matter they constitute and how they continue to affect the people in our societies.
She holds an MFA from Oslo National Academy of Arts from 2021. She has exhibited and performed nationally and internationally in places like Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, MUNCH, Charlottenborg Kunsthal, Nuuk Art Museum, Cultural Centre Caisa, The National Museum in Norway, Lofoten International Arts Festival and Singapore Biennale. For the last two years, she has been an artist in residence at the Borealis Festival for experimental music, focusing on Sámi sonic practices, ways of listening and experimenting.
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