Contemporary Sámi Art in the Making of Sámi Art History: The Work of Geir Tore Holm, Outi Pieski and Lena Stenberg

Abstract

This essay is an attempt to answer the following questions: How do contemporary artists like Geir Tore Holm, Outi Pieski and Lena Stenberg contribute to Sámi art history? And does their work have a reflexive effect on this history? I was initially asked to address these topics as part of the public defence of my doctoral dissertation entitled Samisk kunst i norsk kunsthistorie: Historiografiske riss (Sámi art in Norwegian art history: A historiographical study; Grini 2016). In a broader sense, the issue is how contemporary artists contribute to Sámi art history, if they do so at all. This is a fundamental question, one that is also applicable to the discipline of art history in general. How do contemporary artists contribute to art history? If history is understood as something that has to do with the past, the question is then about the various relationships between the past and the present. This question suggests that the past, explained as history, is not a static entity, but is rather something that must constantly be interpreted from a contemporary perspective. Since history also has to do with narratives – with stories – the question is also about how contemporary artists contribute to our narratives about art.