Monday Lecture: Peradam – Skade Henriksen
In this lecture, Skade Henriksen introduces Peradam, an artistic research project that has been ongoing since 2017 and we encounter its starting point; a graphite mine on Senja / Sážžá in Troms county, Northern Norway.
The project began with a material interest in graphite, the main component of a pencil, and a material closely associated with drawing. At the same time, graphite has become increasingly significant in the ongoing green transition, as a key resource in the development of new technologies. The material connects different histories and temporalities; from the pencil and the hand-drawn image to the growing demand for mineral resources. On Senja/ Sážžá, graphite is also part of a local industrial history, where mining is embedded in the landscape and has functioned as an important source of employment and livelihood for the local community.
Over the course of the project, Henriksen has repeatedly visited the mine and its surrounding landscape, while collaborating with specialists in geology and material research, including researchers at the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) in Trondheim and the Department of Earth Science at the University of Bergen. Through these collaborations, she has used scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to investigate and photograph graphite, exploring the material at different scales, from the landscape itself to its microscopic structures.
The landscape becomes both subject and resource, a site of tension between representation, materiality, extraction, and consumption. Over the years, the project has accumulated an extensive body of material; taking form through installations, photographic works, soundwork, objects, and two publications. The lecture follows the development of the project across a ten year timeline, presented through a series of short, essayistic reflections.
Peradam has received support from the Meltzer Research Fund.
Skade Henriksen (b. 1988, Finnmark, Sápmi/Norway) works with sculpture, installation, drawing, photography, and sound. Combining the poetic with a semi-scientific approach to artistic research, she draws on her background as a research technician, using scientific instruments, methods, and records as both working tools and points of reference. Her practice centres on landscape, with a particular focus on landscape change and shifting notions of time and value. Recent exhibitions include Preus, Norway’s National Museum of Photography (2023), LÁ Art Museum, Iceland (2024), Alta Museum (2025), and Tromsø Kunstforening (2025). Henriksen is currently a PhD research fellow at the Art Academy, University of Bergen.