Anna-Karin Arvidsson

In the meeting between nature and culture, constant changes take place, sometimes over a long period of time, in other cases at lightning speed. In this constant transformation there are poetic, intricate and fascinating stories, but also terrifying and final stories. Stories of how man and nature interact but also how they destroy each other.

This exhibition takes two species as its starting point. One is the iconic deciduous tree, the elm, affected by the invasive fungus Ophistoma novo-ulmi. The other is the unknown, yet increasingly common and invasive herb, the Canadian goldenrod. What are the ecological and cultural consequences of elm extinction, and how should nature and culture respond to yellow meadows of Canadian goldenrod spreading across our landscape?

The two species have been studied and explored through different perspectives, materials, pieces of knowledge and stories, which have then been gathered and shaped into the various works in the exhibition. New stories have been created, others have been reinterpreted. Through the tangible and the intimate, the elm and the goldenrod, an attempt is made to understand the global challenges we face when invasive alien species, with the help of humans, disrupt our fragile ecosystems.

Anna-Karin Arvidsson (b. 1968) is a trained ceramicist at HDK in Gothenburg. She lives and works in Växjö and works as a lecturer in design at Linnaeus University.