The Piga Project: Women, Immigration, Resilience Jill M. Johnson's Reflections with New Forms

Jill M. Johnson's upcoming art exhibit at The Hjemkomst Center entitled "The Piga Project: Women, Immigration, and Resilience," is a multi-media project in which new forms of folk art explore questions concerning cultural meaning, belonging and identity.

"My grandmother Marie was gentle, yet persistent in making sure we understood we were Swedish," Johnson said. "We went to the Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. We ate Swedish food. We were told the stories of our ancestors." But for all of that, Johnson could not read her grandfather's Swedish primer. "I wanted to read his grade school book," Johnson said, "So I applied to the Concordia Adult Swedish Language School and was accepted."

Johnson also attended the Swedish Cultural Heritage Society of the Red River Valley. “At nearly every event someone would sing a song with these words: Greet Them at Home, greet father and mother, greet little brother, if I had wings I would fly. "When I heard that song," Johnson said, "I wanted to cry. I felt a sorrow I couldn’t explain."

With scholarships from Uppsala International Summer Session University Language Program and the Swedish Women's Educational Association International of Minnesota, Johnson made several trips to Sweden. "The first time I went, people called me a foreigner and it was startling. I was Swedish! In America, we have this mathematical way of saying who we are. We say, 'I'm 2/3 Swedish and 1/3 German.' People have retained a sense of cultural identity even into the third and fourth generations. I wanted to explore what Swedish cultural identity means now in America and posed the question, 'Are we still Swedish 100 years after the boat has sailed?'"

Johnson's research became intensely personal when she was given information about her great-great grandmother Inger Borjesdotter. "Those stories about Inger changed everything," Johnson said. "I discovered that she had lived in extreme poverty She worked as a piga―an ordinary farm laborer at the bottom of the social ladder. Inger has become a real woman to me and my role model. I understand my own life better because of her."

of Swedish Folk Dress

When Johnson visited the Mangakulturell Centret in Stockholm, she noticed words inscribed on the steps: 'What did you lose?' This question sparked more questions. "Do women immigrate differently than men? What happens on the day you run out of the very last thing from home? The coffee from Africa, the chocolate from Mexico, the pearl sugar from Sweden? Who are we then? Are we Americans? Are we visitors? Are we something in between?"

"When immigrants don’t deal with the losses of immigration, the pain is transmitted to the next generation and the next," Johnson said. This theory, coined by University of Minnesota professor Pauline Boss, is referred to as frozen immigrant grief. Johnson herself has experienced a wide range of emotions going between Sweden and the U.S. "When I go to Sweden, I feel that I am home in some deeper inexplicable way. I love Minnesota, but as deeply as I live here, there is a different experience of coming home when I am in Sweden. It is the light and the color and the family."

The Piga Project opens January 12 at the Hjemkomst Museum and runs through March 1, 2014. It will focus on reframing

BY JILL N. KANDEL | SKYLOFT PHOTOGRAPHY

Swedish immigration stories from the Great Migration to the present day as contemporary art, writing, film, and have an interactive Immigration Altar. The installation establishes new folk art forms for the Swedish-American community. It is designed to challenge in a respectful manner. "I have spent a lot of time studying folk dress from people in Sweden and the U.S.," Johnson said, "In a sense, I am making visual jazz―understanding the underlying folk dress form and then improvising that theme using new materials like mylar and clear colored plastic. People will not see traditional wool and linen folk dresses, but they will see tradition as well as completely new ways to look at culture."

A grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board and an individual artist grant from the Arts Partnership in Fargo helped Johnson to fund this project. [AWM]

For information on activities and workshops to go along with the exhibit please visit hcscconline.org