Talk and film screening on her book Elf Dalia
Maja Daniels’ book Elf Dalia is about the ancient language of Elfdalian, originating from Alvdalen in Sweden which was spoken by her grandparents, particularly when they didn’t want her to know what they were saying. The Elfdalian language is still spoken today, which is confusing because the community was not strictly private, which is why Daniels is striving to preserve it. When Daniels started looking into this project she became infatuated with the archive that a man from Alvdalen accumulated. This man was called Tenn Lars Persson and he created a 5000 piece archive of images from Alvdalen. it Particularly references the commencement of the Swedish witch trials which occurred during the 16th century when a young girl was accused of walking on water.
Daniels used the archive to create her own interpretation of a narrative and uses her own colour images alongside as a way to support that narrative. Furthermore, she uses colour, exposure and light leaks to really strike a clear contrast between the archive and her own imagery. In terms of sequencing Daniels said that she uses the moon images to ground you in the sequence. Daniels feels this is necessary because she is trying to depict language which is something ultimately invisible. Furthermore, she recognises the preserving ability of photography and feels its the only accessible way to her to preserve the language.
This talk was only 20 mins, so Daniels didn’t go into a great deal of detail but she ended on talking about her collaboration with a sound cloud artist. This artist originally wanted to use one of her images as a cover for his playlist. However, when Daniels listened to the playlist she felt it resonated with her work so she asked to collaborate and created a film using her imagery and his music.
I was lucky enough to be gifted this book and I absolutely love it. The book is so poetic and illustrative of a place and it’s people, the sense of community is potent and it gives you a realistic insight into Elf Dalia.
