ABSTRACT
Iceland Spar, also called doublespar crystals, is a specific variety of crystal originally mined in Iceland and distributed worldwide. In an effort to research this particular crystal, Norwegian artist Toril Johannessen did not travel to Iceland to visit the original source; instead she researched the mineral from her computer. The result was the art installation In Search of Iceland Spar, an installation that did not include an actual piece of spar, but instead was what we might call a media-ecological archive of a small part of the Arctic in the Anthropocene. Scientists, politicians, profit-driven companies, environmentalists – and artists such as Johannessen – feed into these narratives. In the original e-mail requesting images of Iceland Spar, Johannessen refers to a geologist who once explained to her that the heavy extraction led to scarcity of the mineral, and that the mining came to a natural halt.
