Schaannings Eggs

Installation with 36 egg replicas in white clay, and color chart in soft pastel on paper.

Exhibited at the groupexhibition Solastalgia 4.0: Forsøksfelt at Terminal B, Pikene på Broen, Kirkenes (NO)

2024

During the period 1899–1906, the ornithologist Hans T. L. Schaanning collected bird eggs in Sør-Varanger, Norway. These eggs were sold, among other places, to the Natural History Museum in Oslo to finance his extensive documentation of birds in the Pasvik Valley area.
The installation Schaanning’s Eggs consists of 36 replicas of these eggs and is displayed alongside a color chart in soft pastel inspired by the red-orange pigment protoporphyrin IX and the blue-green pigment biliverdin. These two pigments create the color and pattern variations in all bird eggs.

The artwork was created based on photographic documentation at the Natural History Museum in Oslo, with heartfelt thanks to the collection manager, Dr. Lars Erik Johannessen.