Untitled (Spring migration). Johan Turi. Date unknown. Mixed technique on paper (pastel, watercolour, gouache, Indian ink and pencil, or similar). 24.8 x 31.9 cm (irregular). The Johan Turi Archives. Nordiska Museet, Stockholm. LA 659, No. 39, Box J1:1. Photo: Nordiska Museet.

Johan Turi’s “Spring migration” includes an inscription in the lower left area which refers to the Sámi herders’ traditional route from the plateaus in northern Sweden to the areas near Áhkánjárga/Narvik, Norway. In 1751, a codicil to the treaty which set the border between the Danish-Norwegian union and Sweden protected the Sámi herders’ seasonal movements from double taxation. Still, in 1883 a new law limited access to pasture in Norway for herders from the Swedish side. At some point the Turi family was forced, as so many others, to move to the Swedish side in order to continue reindeer herding.  

Interestingly, “Spring migration” is an image of what is visually present, but also, what is not. Seven reindeer seemingly float in the air over the mountains, thus indicating their arrival on the Norwegian side. In the lower right, a giant humanoid with a reindeer is seen as an ulda (pl. ulddat), a spiritual being and guardian existing in a world parallel to the physical world. Turi writes that the ulddat have reindeer that are “mottled, and white-coated […] in all sorts of ways” and thus “much more beautiful than those of the Sámi” (Turi 2012, 171). “It” sees everything, guiding the herders with a pointing gesture, protecting them if they behave respectfully.  

A general feeling of movement permeates the composition. Leaving the paper visible as ground for the image, Turi applies broad brushstrokes, as seen for example in the black outlines representing summits and hills, but counters them by leaving marks that refer to the hairs of his paintbrush. Turi also mechanically deals with forms, using stamps he carved in wood with outlines of humans and animals, resolutely stamped with dark grey ink on top of the already-coloured landscape. They are repeated types, not individual characters. These stylistic traits make evident the painting’s double status as, on the one hand, a physical object that evinces its tactile quality and, on the other, a representation of a motif, a story. Turi’s use of colours is also distinctive. Dark green dominates the ground, with hints of pink or red, blue, lilac and orange. Related colours (green, pink, blue, lilac) are also prominent in the nine irregular ovals, possibly representing clouds. This may seem strange but shows Turi’s control of his composition as a unity.  

“Spring migration” represents nature’s changing qualities from the harsh and dangerous to the bountiful, pleasant, and beautiful. There is hard work for access to water, food, and firewood, risky crossings of high mountains, rivers, deep crevasses, etc. But, as Turi writes, from “a Sámi point of view, it is pleasant when there is good pasture and one has made it to a new place.” (Turi 2012, 48, 49). What is pleasant (hávski) is always so in a holistic sense. 

Essay by Svein Aamold 

Further reading

Svein Aamold. 2023. ‘Johan Turi’s Ecology’. Interventions, 25(7), 878–901. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2023.2169625