Tanya Busse & Emilija Skarnulyte
Tanya Busse (Moncton, 1982) received her BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (Halifax) and MFA from the Tromsø Art Academy. She currently lives and works in Tromsø, Norway.
Emilija Skarnulyte (Vilnius, 1987) graduated from the National school of Fine Arts in Vilnius and got her bachelor degree in sculpture from The Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan.
Hollow Earth (2014) is the result of a friendship and collaboration between Emilija Skarnulyte (LT) and Tanya Busse (CAN), that spanned many months and is ongoing still. It is also a visual meditation and examination of contemporary resource conditions within the circumpolar areas of the North. With the rise of technological advancements, such as seismic tools and other imaging instruments, hidden worlds are being revealed that go beyond what we can see with the naked eye, ultimately effecting how we observe and read the landscape. Through a type of visual anthropology, the artists are exploring this and the frame through which the Northern Landscape has been visually constructed: as a symbol of national romanticism, the arctic frontier, untamed wilderness, polar expedition, tourist destination, and highly contested geopolitical territory currently at the forefront of resource and climate change debates. Combining research material, landscape shots and archival footage, Hollow Earth hopes to reflect over the changing image of the north, as a site where violence, desire, greed, and emotions are played out.