HELNES (2022)

Collaboration with Emma Gunnarsson

Artist book / Sound art installation centred around Helnes Lighthouse, situated on the island of Magerøya in Finnmark, overlooking the Barents Sea. Reaching the lighthouse requires a demanding 12-kilometre hike through a harsh and weather-beaten landscape marked by decaying telephone poles from the 1920s — remnants that survived both the Arctic climate and the burning of Finnmark in 1944. Along the route, the terrain shifts between marshland, sharp stones, and fragments of broken porcelain insulators before the sea and the white lighthouse gradually emerge on the horizon.

In August 2021, the artists undertook a joint research journey to Helnes, following the historic telegraph poles that once formed an essential communication line along the coast. During the expedition, each artist engaged with the landscape through their own artistic methods and interpretations.

Tine Surel Lange collected stones and fragments of porcelain insulators chosen for both their sonic and visual qualities. These materials later became the basis for graphic scores and sound compositions. Back in Lofoten, she selected five stones that were sent to Gunnarsson for further visual processing.

The resulting work is a three-metre-long artist book created in the tradition of leporello book art — an accordion-style book displayed on a specially designed podium. On one side are intaglio prints by Gunnarsson of stones and landscapes from Helnes, produced using photopolymer printing techniques that transfer photographic images into richly textured prints with depth in colour and surface. Some of these prints were further developed with hand-drawn graphic scores, later interpreted sonically using the original stones, resulting in three binaural headphone works.

On the opposite side of the book, Gunnarsson employed frottage techniques commonly associated with archaeological documentation, creating direct impressions from stone surfaces using carbon paper and natural materials. The work also incorporates archival material discovered inside Helnes Lighthouse, including logbooks kept by former lighthouse keepers documenting weather conditions and daily life at the station. These narratives were integrated into the installation through blueprint impressions and relief prints.

The project was realised with technical contributions from photographer Silvia De Giorgio and printmaker Petter Bratland of Prøvetrykk in Harstad, who assisted with traditional typographic printing, the assembly of the artist book, and the design of both the podium and the book cover, which incorporates the elevation profile of the hike to Helnes Lighthouse.1