Old Coniferous trees (2021)
OLD CONIFERIOUS
Landscape Studies
2021 © Stine Gonsholt
C-print/Plexiglas
127 x 85 cm (public Commission)
Commissioned by Skien nye Legevakt
Skien Municipality Art Collection
OLD CONIFERIOUS (series) is part of an ongoing landscape survey of the industrial area Grenland, The focus-point are changes and traces related to human intervention in the landscape; in the past, present and future and how the status of the place changes over time.
For more than a thousand years, timber has been harvested in Telemark's forests and exported from Skien to Europe. In 1580 there were 29 sawmills in the area, and in the 19th century the paper mills were established. These employed large parts of the local population and were in operation until 2006. Today, burning biomass from the forest for district heating is the only further processing of the local wood in Skien.
OLD CONIFERIOUS represent a conservation area of old growth forest in the area. The tree stands as a monument of the forest and the land; the past in the paper industry, the present as a biomass mine and the future as a data storage center.
OLD CONIFERIOUS (2021), C-print/Plexiglas, 127 x 85 cm