Jill Johnson, Swedish American artists

The University of Minnesota's Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve is hosting its first visual artist and outdoor art installation during the inaugural year of its artist-in-residency program. The special project is in collaboration with the Nordic Arts Alliance, based in Moorhead, Minnesota.

Swedish American installation artist Jill Johnson, originally from Anoka, has created an outdoor environment in the oak savannah at Cedar Creek. She seeks to give an answer to a question for Scandinavian Americans:

"Are we still tribal 1000 years after the last Viking axe was thrown?"

Johnson has created beeswax castings of Swedish-American faces and joins the faces to trees which then become bog stav sculptures, an early traditional art form found in bogs in Scandinavia.

Johnson's work links an aspect of the real person's life to an aspect of the Nordic cultural archetype from the stories of the bronze, iron and Viking ages. Cultural archetypes include Viking gods and goddesses such as Odin, Thor, Loki, Freya, Frigg and many others. The sculptures are hung architecturally as mobiles and move in the wind, creating a living forest. The beeswax becomes three-dimensional as the sun shines through the wax and the faces flicker.

Icelandic Viking storyteller Ingibjörg Gísladóttir joins Johnson at Cedar Creek and provides cultural content for the exhibition as well as storytelling sessions and a special evening bonfire storytelling time. Gísladóttir was a founding member of the Viking storytelling and musical group Krauka and she has told stories to all types of audiences from children to queens. She has been featured in many Viking and cultural festivals throughout Europe. This is her first appearance in America.

The events take place at 2660 Fawn Lake Drive Northeast in Bethel, Minnesota.

• Exhibit Hours: Saturdays, October 8 and 15 from 10 am to 8pm and Sundays, October 9 and 16 from noon to 4 pm
• Artist Talks: Saturdays, October 8 and 15 at 11 am and 3 pm and Sundays, October 6 and 16 at 2 pm
• Storytelling Sessions: Saturday, October 8 and 15 at 1:00 pm and Sundays, October 9 & 16, 3pm
• Bonfire Evening Sessions: Saturdays, October 8 and 15 at 7 pm

This project is paid for by grant funds from the Swedish Council of America and this activity is funded, in part, by the Minnesota State Arts Board through the arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the Legacy Amendment vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.

Nordic Arts Alliance is a 501 C3 nonprofit that connects and educates people through tribal and contemporary Nordic arts.