THE HEALTH SPRING
16.11 2024 – 20.12 2024 Hanaholmen Kulturhus, Finland
In the hanging sculpture The Health Spring: DIY Petalite Lithium Generator – Erosion Sculpture Hanna Ljungh examines the mineral petalite and the rock pegmatite and their significance as lithium bearing health minerals, medicine, crystals and geopolitical natural resources. The artist’s starting point is the fact that lithium deposits seem to coincide geographically with what once was holy springs, which later came to be health springs.
The sculpture pumps around what originally is municipal tap water from Hanaholmen but during the duration of the exhibition the water might become enriched by the minerals in the hanging petalite and pegmatite stones. The visitors will be given the opportunity to drink the potentially litium enriched water during the exhibition.
Together with the sculpture a wall mounted text work follows a walk from the decommissioned Nyköping mine on the island of Utö outside Stockholm to the health spring on the same island. The walk connects the two waterfilled holes in the ground, one a former mine, the other a former holy spring. The island of Utö is where petalite first was found in 1818, and later the element lithium was discovered in the petalite mineral.
A third piece in the exhibition is Curiosity Cabinet (Lithium 6 mg): You, me, rock, mountain- commodities of the quantified Universe (Hanging Equilibrium Necklace)
The small cabinet contains the amount of lithium that Ljungh carries in her body. This portable Curiosity Cabinet is part of a series of works that Ljungh has been working on since 2107. In the series of works Ljungh makes the connection between minerals that are sought after in the extraction industries and correlates these to the mineral content in the human body. In some of the cabinets we see the amount the artist has in herown body and in others what is contained in a whole mining community’s collective body.
In her work with Curiosity Cabinets: You, me, rock, mountain… Hanna Ljungh shows the affinity between human and the ground. The matters that we extract from the ground are also components of us. The measuring and calculating that in theindustry aims to achieve maximum efficiency, performance and profit, is to a larger extent turned towards our own bodies.
Ljungh has in her work with the cabinets been interested in the Quantified Self movement, that arose in California inclose relation to the tech industry during the early 2000s. By means of smart watches and other technical equipment which continuously register biometric values like heart frequency, sleep, caloric intake and blood pressure – and at the same time measure and adjust intake of nutrients and minerals – the idea is to optimize the self. In the same way we optimize code in com- puters or flows in the production industry, the quantified self is a pursuit of optimal function and performance.
