Ingeborg Annie Lindahl:
Shifting baseline – Beyond the tipping point

The work presented by Ingeborg Annie Lindahl during Barents Spektakel 2021 continues with themes from her earlier work, which emerge from the paradox that humans as a species will try to maintain and persevere, but at the same time we continue to destroy much of the planet. Grounded in these conversations, her art raises questions about value versus duration.

The artist has taken an interest in the species-rich palsa mires that exist in the northern regions. Palsa mires are biotopes that are sensitive to climate change. Since these unusual environments are declining sharply due to the human impact on the climate, they can be considered a sign that the planet is past one of nature’s tipping points. They tell us about changes that happen without us noticing, because we do not remember or know what they are changing from.

In her ongoing work, Lindahl has been interested in ideas of how we humans adapt to abnormal realities, and how we have a capacity to gradually get used to abnormal natural phenomena. Her work explores notions of how the acceptance of the “new normal” is perhaps the most dangerous environmental problem of our time – a loss of the very perception of change that occurs when the next generation redefines what is ‘natural’.

Mounted as a billboard and with a large-scale form, Lindahl’s work still appears subdued through her drawings with chalk on blackboards. The balance between alarming and subtle aspects of change is central, as the artist draws our attention to the almost imperceptible forms of change that happen so gradually that we are in danger of missing them entirely.