Until the light takes us / Zenith

The exhibition centres on Halde, also known as Haldde or Háldi in Northern Sámi, a mountaintop within Alta municipality that holds layers of scientific, cultural, and personal significance. Halde was the site of the world’s first aurora borealis observatory, established in the early 20th century as part of a pioneering effort to study the northern lights. It is also rooted in Sámi cosmology as Háldi—a mountain spirit and guardian of place. For the artist, Halde is also a site of familial memory: her great-grandmother, Signe, worked in the early 1900s transcribing data that was telegraphed from the observatory on Halde down to Kåfjord. From an office located in the pigeon loft of the Kåfjord copperworks, she received and recorded signals tracking auroral activity. Her father—the artist’s great-great-grandfather—was responsible for delivering mail and supplies by horse up the mountain to the observatory staff, physically bridging the gap between the isolated research station and the settlements below.

This personal connection to a place of scientific observation became a starting point for a broader investigation. Drawing on a practice-based methodology, the artist combines site visits to Halde with archival research in the collections at institutions such as the Alta Museum and the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology in Oslo. The research explores not only the early scientific approaches to the northern lights, but also the role of landscape, mythology, and Indigenous knowledge systems in shaping understandings of celestial phenomena.

In this exhibition, sculptural objects, installations, video, sound, and light are used to create a spatial and sensory dialogue with these layered histories. The works reflect an engagement with the materials and topography of Halde, the rhythms of observation and transmission, and the intergenerational threads that run through both scientific practice and lived experience. Through this, the exhibition invites viewers to consider how meaning is constructed across axes of time, space, and memory—and how we position ourselves in relation to what we observe.

Skade Henriksen (b. 1988, Finnmark, Norway) works with sculpture, installation, drawing, photography and sound. Skade combines the poetic with a semi-scientific approach to artistic research. With a background as a research technician, she uses scientific instruments and records as a working method and reference point in her works. Landscape is a consistent theme in her artistic practice. She has recently exhibited at Preus Norway's National Photo Museum (2023) and LÁ art museum in Iceland (2024) . Maintaining a high level of activity she has several upcoming exhibitions. Henriksen is currently a PhD research fellow at the Art Academy, University of Bergen.