The Wandering Darkhouse & A Cartographer's Breakdown

After a major renovation, an old lighthouse was re-installed on one of Gothenburg outer islands. Before being installed at its former location, it made a small tour around the west coast. To me, this was a wonderful paradox; a lighthouse travelling the archipelago of Gothenburg. What happens when a lighthouse becomes mobile and the guiding light, which stands for safety, is no longer in a fixed position from which one can navigate? In this work, I have tried to recreate this contradiction of a transitory pointer.

The portable lighthouse have it self travelled; been shipped, dragged and carried, making both the maker/guard of the lighthouse and the viewer renegotiate location in a continuous state of flux. A portable lighthouse is, however, still an indicator that says ‘Here I am,’ but even more so a fault point of safety which brings to mind concepts of displacement. Questions being raised through A Wandering Darkhouse are concerning (be)longing and (im)mobility.

In Reykjavik the lighthouse was placed by the old see shore.

Glasgow based writer, Ulrich Hansen, picked up on the idea of the unfixed lighthouse and together we decided to make a publication. He invited fellow writers to contemplate in a restricted format (max 150 words) on the lighthouse as motif. The result is A Cartographers Breakdown; a map that tries to map the ‘unmappable’ or make markers, which create signifiers to hang our memories. With this exhibition in Iceland and Ulrich writing in Scotland, the work creates a triangle of points: Reykjavik, Glasgow and Gothenburg.

>>see more of the map

Me and Marcus tried a few ideas out.

The structure was made at Grimmereds Verkstads AB

Lina and me on the way home - by bus.

Ali making the last adjustements.