every Where and any place: Workers’ Maypole

Site-specific sound, instrument, and performance creation (June - November 2026)

Background

Organized by Konstmusiksystrar (SE) and NyMusikk (NO), “every Where and any place” is a residency for Nordic and Baltic artists working with sound and music. The first installment of the program took place 16-28 June, a process-based residency where new projects were developed in close relation to the spaces, acoustics, and history of Stallbergs Gruva, an abandoned iron mine Sweden’s historic mining region, now an international multi-arts center. Participating artists: Alsa Ojala (FI), Hildur Elísa Jónsdóttir (NL/IS), and Wilson Tanner Smith (FI/US)

My work at the mine branched out in many directions: with new music for cello, voice, chimes made from found metal scraps, harmonica, and text drawn from international labor movement history (The Workers’ Maypole, Walter Crane 1894, the speeches of Eugene Debs)

An end-of-residency performance was given 27 June as part of the local art tour/festival Kulturglimtar, along with the installation of the Stallberg Chimes and the Three Stallberg Flutes (in progress). More about these objects/instruments below.

The project continues 3-8 November 2026 with a follow-up performance/installation at UKS (Unge Kunstneres Samfund) in Oslo

Anywhere Chimes

A percussion instrument created out of found metal scraps in the disused mine facility, suspended from an old coat rack. This sculptural instrument reflects the deep-sensing approach taken to the space, the site, the detritus left behind. What is it to encounter an unfamiliar, site which is at once a reflection of the values that shape our modern lives? There is much vibrating under the surface, converging in the present.

Three Ställberg Flutes (in progress)

Three flutes made from the legs of “any” abandoned table - a mass-produced wooden table left sitting in the mine facility for who knows how long. An experiment in seeing, feeling, hearing how any thing sounds when we pay attention or imagine... There is dignity in all things: the names given to the largest of the three flutes reflect this ethos, and playfully poke at the assumptions/aura around important/non-important objects. The overly-poetic names are inspired by legendary instruments spoken about in reverent tones in ancient Chinese and Japanese epics.

We are only ever here by accident,
There is dignity in all things, and
Bubblegum wrapper

Staff of Happenstance

A staff and noisemaker adorned with ordinary trash (collected from the old mine) intended for ordinary magic rituals and joyful noise.