In the Anthems project, Amber Ablett has been learning the national anthems of countries that people have asked her if she comes from.
Anthems began in early 2017 when Ablett gathered a list of 13 countries that others had connected her with due to an assumption based on her appearance, and began learning these anthems; songs which were written to draw a picture of a nation and to evoke unity and pride.
The question of how we see ourselves and how we are seen goes much wider than Ablett's personal experience related to ethnicity. Strict definitions and ideas of identity are often forced upon us, and she would like to open this discussion further. The overall project of learning the national anthems seeks to raise the question of the assumed relationship between ethnicity and nationality, our outer appearances and our inner connections, how we see ourselves and how others see us.
The attempt to learn the anthems is Ablett's attempt to connect with countries that she has no connection with, but that other people connected her with, while also confronting this challenge to her sense of belonging. Anthems shares recordings and text works from this project within an archival structure.
Anthems is curated by Julie Lillelien Porter and supported by BEK and Arts Council Norway.