Insomnia & Né sous la même étoile

Garden work and wall piece
noma, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2023

Since 2020, Julie Lænkholm has worked to make room in the garden outside Noma’s restaurant for herbs from her phyto-archiveInsomnia, a research-based collection of plants with hormonal balancing properties. In opposition to monuments of culturally acclaimed heros focusing on conquest and individualism, Lænkholm’s memorizing medicine garden is a healing community and a living work, patiently tended to as it grows, blooms, and changes. A malleable manifestation of collectively remembered herbal knowledge, the garden is a social experience as well as a flourishing pharmacy.

At the same time, Lænkholm’s plants contribute to her art practice as seen in the centerpiece Nés sous la même étoile placed in the restaurant in visual proximity of the window overlooking the garden. The silk and felted wool used in this work are dyed with leaves and flowers, thus merging various realms of nature into poetically budding hybrids. The ongoing dialogue and alliances connecting the indoor and outdoor art works mirror Lænkholm’s overall focus on accordances between inner and outer seasons.

In the words of art critic Jane Harris: "At a time when the legacies of patriarchy and capitalism have devastated our planet, Lænkholm’s garden embodies the power of holistic community to rebalance our relationship with nature as well as to one another– it celebrates the cycles of life that bind us all to our ancestral motherland, and to the female caretakers that have preserved its healing bounty."

Andvakandi
Permanent garden work

Ásmundarsalur Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland, 2022

The garden is an oath to Kristlaug Pálsdóttir who taught Julie Lænkholm the healing power of Icelandic herbs. The artwork is made of four wild herbs: Blóðberg, Beitilyng, Birkilauf and Vallhumall. The four plants have essential healing qualities and havebeen used in Icelandic tradition to heal and help were distances were too far to get medical assistance.

Andvakandi Is the Icelandic word for Waking up, sleeplessness, and also the title of a composed music piece from Julie’s great grandfather. Local musicians has been playing for the plants while they have been growing.

The work is inspired by the first wool work by Lænkholm ’Húsavik’ which she made to connect with her ancesteral village in 2016. The plants in Kristlaugs garden stem just like Lænkholm from the North highlands. The artwork frames the activities of the public garden and will bring almost lost ancestral knowledge to the public. Knowledge that has been passed on through generations ofIcelandic women through oral history.

The tea from the museum garden is served in the museum cafe and the money raised from the tea is donated to a fund thatsupport and re fertilizes the highlands of Iceland, in this way the project is trying to point to circularity and sustainability within its own structure.

The garden is supported by Ny Carlsberg Fondet

______________________________________

Untitled

Permanent works

Eastern High Court of Denmark

Bredgade, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2022

All photos by © Joakim Züger

Copyright © Alle rettigheder forbeholdes