Death Means Nothing for the Colours. Anders Sunna. 2009. Acrylic and photo on plate. 72 x 122 cm. RiddoDuottarMuseat. SD1014

Anders Sunna (born 1984) is a Northern Sámi artist from Sweden who has garnered international recognition through his socially and politically engaged art. Sunna’s oeuvre can be placed within the activist art tradition, as many of his artworks confront historical, social and political issues. Death Means Nothing for the Colours (2009) is an early work of art in his career that stands strong in protesting Nordic colonialism, oppression and social injustices. Through his use of old European photographs of the Sámi, his painting brings attention to the Nordic settler states' attempts at erasing Sámi culture through the establishing of borders, land grabs and assimilation policies. 

His painting shows a landscape of snow-covered mountains through which a herd of reindeer is passing. From the far distance the reindeer move in a curved line to the front of the composition that ends with the lead reindeer, which meets our gaze while examining its surroundings. As the herd moves towards the viewer, they pass through an open fence made up of seventeen black-and-white photographs. Above the landscape is a light-coloured sky where horizontal strip of bleeding, but now dried, paint in red, green, yellow and blue colours. Arranged in a way reminiscent of the Sámi flag, the strip of colours emphasises the two-dimensionality of the canvas that, like the fence of photographs, breaks the illusion of the landscape. 

Most of the photos in the fence relate directly to Sámi people, material culture, historical and more recent practices and events, several of which may be further situated within the context of Nordic and European colonialism. This is most noticeable in the series of six ethnographic ‘mug shots’ (numbers 8-10 from the left), and the image showing shelves with rows of human skulls (number 13 from the left). 

In its use of historical photographs, Death Means Nothing for the Colours is reminiscent of Áillohaš’ (Nils Aslak Valkeapää) acclaimed book of poetry and photographs, Beaivi Áhčážan. Published in 1988, Beaivi Áhčážan is probably the earliest Sámi work of art to reclaim and reuse such historical photographs. Like Valkeapää, Sunna takes back and creates a new context for the photographs that is both aesthetic and Sámi. Valkeapää does this through poetry, while Sunna places the photographs in a painted landscape. In both cases, the photographs take on new meanings. Sunna’s painting presents a “negative homecoming” through its use of the photographs as it returns the uncomfortable and violent sides of Nordic colonialism back to Sápmi. In doing so, the painting is meant to evoke adverse reactions and emotions as it brings up Sámi histories, memories and fates. Death Means Nothing for the Colours shows a narrative of a settler-colonial history through the photographs that is both personal and collectively shared among the Sámi, while the painting is about Sámi survival, resilience and resistance against that history. Using these historical photographs in this way is to bridge the gap between the events of the past and bring them to the present. 

Essay by Per Asle Sara