Special Island

In August 2002, some people from the University of Utrecht named Herman, Hannes, Tony and Martyn gave a conference paper at the Fourth International workshop on Orogenic Lherzolites and Mantle Processes in Hokkaido, Japan. I like to imagine they were very excited to present their “startling discovery of in situ microdiamonds in a mantle-derived peridotite lens from Bardane, Fjørtoft, western Norway.” That is, the “first known global occurrence of subduction-related diamond formation” – diamonds “that are, in turn, inclusions within garnets.”

In May 2024, the artist Natalie Price Hafslund will hand out mantle-derived peridotite rocks containing garnets containing microdiamonds to visitors of her show, Special Island, at mauer project space in Cologne. Price Hafslund collected the rocks by hand on the flat, small island where her mother lives in western Norway. It is the only place they are known to occur.