“In the afternoon, they moved the thrall girl to something that looked like a door frame, where she was lifted on the palms of the men three times. Every time, the girl told of what she saw. The first time, she saw her father and mother, the second time, she saw all her relatives, and the third time she saw her master in the afterworld. There, it was green and beautiful and together with him, she saw men and young boys. She saw that her master beckoned for her. By using intoxicating drinks, they thought to put the thrall girl in an ecstatic trance that made her psychic and through the symbolic action with the door frame, she would then see into the realm of the dead. “[1]
-Ibn Fadlan’s (a 10th century Arab writer) account of a Norse chieftain’s funeral giving a detailed description of the preparations of his body and of the preparations for sacrifice of one of his thrall (slave) girls to be with him in the afterlife.
Heaven’s Gate was a site specific installation realized as part of The Arctic Circle artist residency.