Syväri, 2020
Installation
Video projections, sound, lace curtain, curtain rail, metal hooks,
veneer, soldered metal sheets, mirror pieces
Dimensions variable

During the development of this installation I was researching themes of intergenerational experience, war memories, the continuity of memories, dreams, evacuation and emotional responses to family history.

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Video 1: An elderly Russian woman is being interviewed about WWII evacuations from Syväri, Karelia, a former Finnish district. My great grandfather is one of many Finnish soldiers who disappeared there during the war, and whose remains were found in 2012 by Russian volunteers. Interview by volunteers.

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Video 2: My youngest sister Martta in 2019 with her cat on a fireweed field next to my mother's house in Finland.

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Sound: Gently muffled, of low breeze in the field mixed with the interview.

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Sculpture: During the development of this installation, I had a dream I was in a house with a cut-off staircase leading to an opening in the ceiling, which I recreated here. Headphones play a love song from the sixties. 

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