During the night billions of sea creatures had been born - jelly-fish, mollusc, starfish, sea worms, shells and fish. They filled our bay but we couldn’t see them as they were all totally transparent.

In two hours they were gone.

My father has been working in the forest all his life. Though not educated he has learnt the names of all plants in our Nordic environment. And their names in Latin and the meanings of their Latin names
His sister embroidered plants on tablecloth, linen and aprons - textiles that are hardly used anymore. Her house is standing by its own, all surrounded with forest, but nowadays she never goes outdoors.
Every summer in the country house I find myself cutting, sawing or digging up plants to make space for me and my family.
In different ways we try to organize the nature around us, to keep it understandable and under control. A way of showing our sovereignty or just a fear of being reduced to a part of it?

Ever since I could make my own decisions I have travelled a lot. But there are almost no photos from these places I have visited. I always felt very uncomfortable behind the camera. It disturbed my “being there”. But there are of course a lot of pictures still left “on the shelves of my brain” and they pop up from time to time, teased out from some unexpected association.
For some time I have always had my sketchbook with me, so whenever these pictures emerge, I caught them in a quick drawing. From these trapped memories I made my brooches. Naturally, they are not “true” pictures, as memories tend to change with time. They are pictures sifted through my experience and values and interpreted in material and techniques.
To keep the project together I determined certain directions in size (6x6 cm) and colour (black/white). This is also a reminder of my parents’ wonderful box with old and new photos, never put in order in an album, where people and places mix in new exciting stories.
A memory is by disposition disordered, taken from its place in time and put in another context, once again interacting in our lives.

The project AD ORA was a try-out to connect two artistic disciplines; dance and jewellery. In close work with a dancer a performance was developed where movement and jewellery together told a story. Time and rythm were main ingredients. The performance was filmed and shown only as a video.
Performing artists:
      Dancer Anna Westberg        Artist Nils Ramhöj.