Susanne Hætta
Photo: Per Heimly
Susanne Hætta
- 1975
- Artist and author
- Guovdageaidnu
Susanne Hætta (Madenin-Sunna) grew up in Áltá/Alta. Her roots are from Siebe in Guovdageaidnu and Andøya. She lives currently in Čáhcesuolu/Vadsø. She is a writer and a visual artist, who works primarily with graphic art and photography and in the writing field she works with essays and non-fiction books.
Get to know Susanne Hætta through this filmportrait.
Exhibition Sápmi samtid, 2020. Photo: Lene Ødegård.
Ruoktu artpiece. Photo: Susanne Hætta
«I am a Sámi artist and I make Sámi art. My daily life is geographically and culturally far away from my actual Sámi home, which is what the project Ruoktu reflects.»
Susanne holds a degree in social sciences and became an artist, photographer and author in adult age in 2014. She has always had a life with writing and photography. In the beginning Susanne concentrated on photographic practices, both working for others, and with her own art project «Blood Conversations». For that, she used blood as a medium to talk about i.e. kinship, fertility, culture, identity, sexuality and religion. One of the artworks has been aquired for the planned Sámi Art Museum, while another is aquired by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the Norwegian Parliament.
Book talk with Finnmark Nesten Norge. Photo: Tor Ivan Boine
Presentation of a book about Máze artist group, 2019. Photo: Tor Ivan Boine
Susanne is the author of six books, and the editor of another two, among them books about Sámi artists. She is interested in investigating the concepts of home and longing, loss of language and loneliness, connected to her Sámi identity. It’s expressed through black-white photographs of Sápmi landscapes without people, and the ongoing project Ruoktu (‘home’ in Northern Sámi) where Susanne so far has worked with graphic techniques. In 2016 she became a member of Dáiddadállu, and now she is a part of the network where her art is created and finds a home.
Work in progress. Photo: Susanne Hætta
Susanne´s graphic works are printed in her laundry room and the ceramics are made on her kitchen table, because she don’t have a proper studio. Often her own hair and bodily fluids are part of the works.
«I often think about quitting art for good, but something keeps me going.»
Contact Susanne:
susannehetta@gmail.com
Tlf.: +47 99647147