VIDEO | Things that Get in Our Way – Mk1 | 2025
Things that Get in Our Way – Mk1
2025
1-channel, HD1080
12:22 min
This HD video was filmed in Oviken, one of the Swedish sites now being considered for uranium mining. Open-pit extraction would cause severe environmental damage, releasing highly toxic material into the surrounding ecosystems.
The work began during the aftermath of Fukushima and the European migrant crisis—two deeply polarising debates driven more by emotional argument than factual understanding. Things that Get in Our Way reflects on how easily public opinion can turn against knowledge, science, and long-term thinking.
This new edition was finalised in 2025 as a direct response to current Swedish legislation pushing nuclear expansion and reopening uranium extraction.
Shot in Oviken, Jämtland—a rural site in Sweden marked by prospects of uranium and vanadium extraction — Things that Get in Our Way – Mk1 explores the complex intersection of landscape, radiation, and myth. The work combines video with a custom-built experimental device: a polished metal sphere mounted on a tripod, housing a Geiger counter and microprocessor. This instrument, responsive to ambient gamma radiation, emits flashing lights and clicking sounds reminiscent of scientific measuring tools.
The artwork probes how our understanding of radiation—and environmental threats more broadly—remains shaped by mythic narratives and a persistent reliance on symbolic interpretations. The artist's performative, and at times deliberately "futile," engagement with the device becomes a meditation on the limits of perception and the challenges of making the invisible visible. Rather than offering clear answers, Things that Get in Our Way – Mk1 invites viewers to confront their own interpretive frameworks and reflect on the often inaccessible forces that shape the environments we inhabit.
