Byssus cleaning, Hanstholm 2022Sea Silk
In collaboration with Maja Lund since 2020
Byssus are threads of small hairs secreted from the mussel's foot, with which it attaches itself to rocks, to each other or to the seabed. When the sea is agitated, the quantity and quality of the threads increase. If the mussel needs to move to a more favorable location, it detaches from the ground and wanders.
The starting point for the artists' collaboration is the Sardic tradition of spinning sea silk from byssus from the Mediterranean clam Pinna nobilis. Environmental destruction and climate change have caused disease and mass death in the species, which is endangered and red-listed by the IUCN. The lack of materials also threatens the survival of the craft.
Since 2020, the two artists collaborated with Scanfjord - a blue mussel producer north of Gothenburg, where the mussels grow along ribbons. When the mussels are harvested, the shells are washed clean and all the byssus ends up in a tub. The entanglement of threads carries sand, remnants of mussel flesh, shards of seashells and seaweed. In the afternoons, the truck arrives from Mollösund to the fishing port in Gothenburg. The drivers bring bags of byssus from the tub. It smells like sea, but the decomposition process goes fast - it has to be cleaned the same evening, because the next day it smells dead.
Using the raw material from the blue mussel production, the artists worked individually and collaboratively with artworks, exhibitions and publications. Their first encounter was for the exhibition Sea Treasures at Gatenhielmska huset in Gothenburg 2020. In 2022, they produced the exhibition Sea Silk at the North Atlantic Lighthouse in Hanstholm, and in 2024 the exhibition Byssus at Officinet in Copenhagen, along with a publication and program of talks and workshops.
Mulberry silk dyed with algea, Hanstholm 2022
Hanna Norrna and Maja Lund, Hanstholm DK 2022
Byssus in ceramic shell, Gothenburg 2021
Photo: Malwa Grabowska/Hipermania, Carina Peterson