Exhibitor: Gunvor Guttorm
In our small gallery, we present a duodji exhibition by Gunvor Guttorm. Her exhibition Divdna atnit ávdnasiid means to make comprehensive use of the material. This is a theme that has always been close to Guttorm’s heart. In this exhibition, Guttorm presents works of arts and crafts that she made during a development project at the Sámi University College. She uses young birchwood as material for the ”stands” of her products. In this exhibition, she also displays knitted works, and, in them too, she makes comprehensive use of the material, showing its many qualities.
The exhibition shows how to develop objects in new forms without losing or ignoring the knowledge that is needed for creating. Clearly, the artist knows the material she is working with. Duodji, or Sámi arts and crafts, means practical objects but also objects that are linked with life. I have collected materials in my childhood home in Karasjok and in Jokkmokk. During the trips between these two places as well as during my mental journey, I have created things which have, together, a meaning but which also have, alone, a function. We might want to ask whether this means that the works of duodji Guttorm has crafted are part of the life we lead together but also part of that which we need to cope with alone.
Gunvor Guttorm was born in Karasjok and lives now in Jokkmokk in Sweden. She began her training with the furniture maker programme at the Sámi Upper Secondary School in Kautokeino in 1980, continuing with the carpentry programme at Jokkmokk Folk High School. She has also a pedagogical training and holds now a position at the Sámi University College in Kautokeino as a Doctor of Arts in duodji. Her doctoral thesis on Sámi contemporary duodji which dealt with the náhppi, the Sámi wooden bowl, was accepted at the University of Tromsø in 2003. Guttorm has participated in a number of solo and group exhibitions both in Norway and other countries.
