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Herring, Iron, Gunpowder, Humans & Sugar

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Hands deep down in the virgin soil, as blue as the moon, so deep in the ocean. Dive down. People, kids, elders, bring them a new future. Start all over. Pressure, under, around, truth. The stony world will slowly blossom. Space fish, space fruit. Installation, 2022. Photos by Vigfús Birgisson.

Hands deep down in the virgin soil, as blue as the moon, so deep in the ocean. Dive down. People, kids, elders, bring them a new future. Start all over. Pressure, under, around, truth. The stony world will slowly blossom. Space fish, space fruit. Installation, 2022. Photos by Vigfús Birgisson.

Hands deep down in the virgin soil, as blue as the moon, so deep in the ocean. Dive down. People, kids, elders, bring them a new future. Start all over. Pressure, under, around, truth. The stony world will slowly blossom. Space fish, space fruit. Installation, 2022. Photos by Vigfús Birgisson.

Hands deep down in the virgin soil, as blue as the moon, so deep in the ocean. Dive down. People, kids, elders, bring them a new future. Start all over. Pressure, under, around, truth. The stony world will slowly blossom. Space fish, space fruit. Installation, 2022. Photos by Vigfús Birgisson.

Hands deep down in the virgin soil, as blue as the moon, so deep in the ocean. Dive down. People, kids, elders, bring them a new future. Start all over. Pressure, under, around, truth. The stony world will slowly blossom. Space fish, space fruit. Installation, 2022. Photos by Vigfús Birgisson.

Hands deep down in the virgin soil, as blue as the moon, so deep in the ocean. Dive down. People, kids, elders, bring them a new future. Start all over. Pressure, under, around, truth. The stony world will slowly blossom. Space fish, space fruit. Installation, 2022. Photos by Vigfús Birgisson.

Hands deep down in the virgin soil, as blue as the moon, so deep in the ocean. Dive down. People, kids, elders, bring them a new future. Start all over. Pressure, under, around, truth. The stony world will slowly blossom. Space fish, space fruit. Installation, 2022. Photos by Vigfús Birgisson.

Hands deep down in the virgin soil, as blue as the moon, so deep in the ocean. Dive down. People, kids, elders, bring them a new future. Start all over. Pressure, under, around, truth. The stony world will slowly blossom. Space fish, space fruit. Installation, 2022. Photos by Vigfús Birgisson.

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Herring, Iron, Gunpowder, Humans & Sugars (HIGHS) is a collective that researches the history behind the transatlantic slave trade and its economical system. Through this research they create performances that tackle trauma and the importance of memory and responsibility. HIGHS work focuses on material and historical voyages and the bodily exorcism of histories. For IMMUNE, HIGHS presents a series of sculptural terrariums made out of glass,  placed within the exhibition space as clusters with ackee seeds and the salt fish. The basis of their work focuses on the connections between salted cod from the North Sea and Western African fruit Ackee, Jamaica’s national dish. 

The historical significance of salt, or more specifically the lack of, in Iceland is important in informing their work, and is also spoken about in Travels in Iceland. Salted cod was exported from Iceland and the Nordic countries to “new world” colonies in the 16th to 19th century, feeding enslaved workers in the sugar fields. Historically, because of the lack of salt production in Iceland, fish was mostly dried and it wasn’t until the 18th century that a market was created to export salt fish from Iceland. In the year 1760  the Danish King, Frederick V,  issued a commandment that one person of foreign origin was required to live in each harbor, so as to teach Icelanders how to make salt fish the same way as in Newfoundland. There the salt fish industry had originated and bloomed when salt fish which was found not to be suitable for the general market could be used in the transatlantic trade as a food source for enslaved people. In the same years Frederick V bought the West Indies Islands and Iceland became a part of the general trading company of Denmark, exporting to the West Indies and Africa. If an Icelander would not take part in the fishing industry in Iceland, they would be fined.  

Eggert and Bjarni suggest in their work the establishment of a salt production in Iceland at the advent of the salt fish industry in Iceland by using geothermal heat to boil seawater. Much like our colonizing past, HIGHS  imagine a future in which Ackee and salted cod is grown in laboratories for space travel nutrition. Their installation is an imaging of a future in which humans search for new planets to colonize or extract materials from, questioning mankind’s strive for expansion and the unknown. HIGHS draws on terms from AfroFuturism, which projects future speculations that will eventually give and present another version of the past of explorers and their interpretation of salt of the earth.

Herring, Iron, Gunpowder, Humans & Sugar (HIGHS) – Collective that visits places that were linked to the triangular trade the economical system behind the transat- lantic slave trade. At the historical places they make performance with storytelling and dance together with objects consisting of the material that were extracted, manufacturer and exported by this places. In the process, Whyte & Zettergren want to activate the sites and materials in a search for a method to process histor- ical trauma and to create discussions about memory, heritage and responsibility. HIGHS is run by the Jamaican dancer Olando Whyte and the Swedish artist Rut Karin Zettergren since 2017.

Immune / Ónæm

Herring, Iron, Gunpowder, Humans & Sugar

Herring, Iron, Gunpowder, Humans & Sugars (HIGHS) er listahópur sem rannsakar baksögu þrælasölu yfir Atlantshafið og efnahagskerfið sem henni tilheyrði. Út frá rannsóknum þeirra verða til gjörningar sem takast á við áföll og mikilvægi minnis og ábyrgðar. Verk HIGHS einblína á efnis- og sögulegar langferðir og líkamlega sagnasæringu. Á ÓNÆM sýnir HIGHS seríu af skúlptúrískum gróðurhúsum, sem staðsett eru innan sýningarrýmisins líkt og þyrpingar af ackee fræjum og saltfisk. Verk þeirra hverfast um samband saltaðs þorsks úr Norður-Atlantshafinu og Vestur-Afríska ávaxtarins Ackee, þjóðarrétt Jamaíku-búa. 

Mikilvægt er að hafa sögulegt vægi salts á Íslandi, nánar tiltekið skorts á því, til hliðsjónar við lestur verka þeirra en um það er einnig fjallað í Ferðabók Eggerts og Bjarna. Frá 16. öld fram á 19. öld var saltaður þorskur fluttur frá Íslandi, og öðrum Norðurlöndum, til nýlendna „hins nýja heims,“ þar sem hann fæddi þræla sem strituðu á sykurökrunum. Vegna skorts á saltframleiðslu á Íslandi var fiskur að mestu þurrkaður, það var ekki fyrr en á 18. öld sem markaður fyrir útflutningi saltaðs fisks varð til á Íslandi. Árið 1760 gaf Danakonungur, Friðrik V, út þau fyrirmæli að í hverri höfn skyldi dvelja einstaklingur af erlendum uppruna svo kenna mætti Íslendingum að salta fisk á sama hátt og gert var í Nýfundnalandi. Þar hafði saltfiskverkunin átt upptök sín og iðnaðurinn blómstraði þegar saltfiskur, sem ekki þótti henta hinum almenna markaði, gat nýst í sölu yfir Atlantshafið sem fæða fyrir þræla. Á svipuðum tíma festi Friðrik V kaup á Vestur-Indíum og Ísland var innlimað í hið almenna verslunarfélag Danmerkur, með útflutning til Vestur-Indía og Afríku. Ef Íslendingur tók ekki þátt í íslenskum fiskiðnaði, var sá hinn sami sektaður. 

 Eggert og Bjarni gefa til kynna í skrifum sínum möguleikum að hefja saltframleiðsla sem atvinnugrein á Íslandi á svipuðum tíma og saltfiskiðnaður hefst á Íslandi. Þeir benda á möguleika þess að sjóða sjóvatn með jarðvarmahita við framleiðslu saltsins.. Líkt og í nýlendufortíð okkar, ímyndar HIGHS sér framtíð þar sem Ackee og saltaður þorskur eru ræktuð á tilraunastofum sem matarforði fyrir geimferðir. Innsetning þeirra er ímynduð framtíð þar sem menn leita að nýjum plánetum til að gera að nýlendum eða grafa efni úr og varpar þannig fram spurningum um tilhneigingu mannsins til að sækjast eftir útþenslu og hinu óþekkta. HIGHS byggir á hugmyndum AfróFútúrisma, sem dregur upp mynd af tilgátum um framtíð, sem munu að lokum leiða af sér nýja útgáfu af fortíð landkönnuða og túlkun þeirra á salti jarðar.