Jordi NN

Sápmi perceptions​

At the end of 2015 I travel to northern Europe to the Barents sea. The main goal for me was to experience the Polar night and Aurora Borealis. During the expedition I got to know about Lapps community and I was invited to live some days with a Sami family. That experience reflected on some of my later works and gave me some new understanding, knowledge and respect for Laplanders traditions, history and actual context of this indigenous Finno-Ugric people.

_Sámi drums series

2016 / Private Collection

Sámi ceremonial drums have two chiefly two variations, both oval-shaped: a bowl drum in which the drumhead is strapped over a burl, and a frame drum in which the drumhead stretches over a thin ring of bentwood. The drumhead is fashioned from reindeer hide.

The patterns on the drum membrane reflect the worldview of the owner and his family, both in religious and worldly matters, such as reindeer herding, hunting, householding as well as relations to their neighbours and to the non-Sámi community.

_Dimensions

Height / 210 mm

Width / 148 mm

_Medium

Watercolor, Coffee and Black ink

Paper 210gr

_Sámi Bear symbol

2017 / Private Collection

The place of the bear in the ancient Sami belief system is as mediator between the gods and the people. The animal’s soul was believed to be able to move freely between the natural world and the otherworld.

_Dimensions

Height / 210 mm

Width / 148 mm

_Medium

Acrilyc

Black cardboard