“...it is said that if someone before first light on Christmas Eve goes into a forest without saying a word, without looking back, without looking into a fire, without food and drink, and so far that the crowing of a cock cannot be heard, they can walk on church roads and see all of the funeral processions of the coming year, and by looking at the fields, they will see how the harvest will turn out and if and where there will be fires as well as other things that will come to pass…”

- In the writings of Petrus Gaslander, 1680-1758, with possible contributions from Johannes Gaslander (Character and Customs of the Peasantry [Beskriftning om Svenska Allmogens Sinneslag och Seder])

The ‘Year Walk’, or Årsgång, as it is known in Swedish, is a divination ritual undertaken on or close to the Winter Solstice, when the human and spirit worlds are closely intertwined. Depriving oneself of food, water, light, and human contact for the twelve hours leading to midnight would allow a year walker to cross the aperture into the spirit world. Here, they could expect to face various challenges from creatures of Norse mythology, and, if deemed worthy, would be gifted the power of future sight.

This series will reimagine the Year Walk ritual in a contemporary America, with the gift of future sight instead serving as a warning from the spirits of a bleak future. The year walker will learn lessons from the spirits along their journey and receive visions of a reality in which irreparable harm has been done to the natural world through overconsumption, pollution, and other side effects of the collective blissful ignorance of humanity.