I'm half way through my residency here in Finland (and already planning a return trip to continue the work) and last night, just as I was about to go to bed I glanced outside to check the sky as the space weather data (which I had been making a point of checking online) had said there might be some aurora - and sure enough, just past midnight the sky began to dance...
Its really hard to focus the camera in the dark, but these shots are ok enough to give a bit of an idea of the awe of the northern lights. It's worth saying that what I could see just with my eye was paler than this; I had the camera on an 8 second exposure, so the camera sensor can pick the colours up far better than the eye can - but I've not changed the colours at all in these pictures, this is what the camera picked up.
I had to be up early today for a day in the school here, so I'm now really tired as it was so hard to pull myself away from the view last night! If I hadn't had a 6am start then I might have walked with the camera away form the tiny bit of street lighting which is outside where I'm staying. But, as this was the view from my apartment, its quite special too! This was my first viewing of the northern lights, something I have wanted to see ever since I can remember being a tiny child; so it was a deeply important and significant moment.
It feels like just one of so many layers of things that the land is revealing here - secrets that you have to be patient for, things that are visible only occasionally, fleetingly. And because of that the reward in seeing them is so much deeper and sits with the soul...
Its such a fascinating landscape here that I've wanted to be outside with the camera walking and exploring as much as I possibly can. The studio (and apartment attached to it) is a really inspiring space with light flooding in, its just that the forest keeps calling out to me...
Collecting and gathering things that intrigue me is a key part of my work and from the first day here I was gathering little bits of fallen twig, nibbled pine cones, fallen lichen and more... my pockets bursting with tiny treasures... I've managed to find some (cheap) second hand Finnish books, so I'm trying to use those together with things I've brought with me. I've been looking at ways of creating spaces to hold some of the gathered tiny pieces and thoughts and questions... Other things may emerge... These are just starting points... (plus I couldn't bring a printing press with me or enough pots and pans and steamers to set eco printing going, so some of the techniques I want to explore will have to wait to be continued back in the UK...).
Gathering objects and questions and little snippets of noticed things whilst out walking is a key interest for me and its something I explore in my own work and in the projects I work on with groups. I've been out with the school gathering mushrooms; it's deeply inspiring to see how connected the children and staff are to the land. There is a deep respect and trust and understanding which sits with people here and the school is such a lovely illustration of this. The children have been learning lots about which mushrooms are edible and which are not and it's so great to see how this works in practice as they go off collecting - and many people forage here, there is a right of access to the land to do so, therefore small children grow up noticing the adults around them foraging with care as a part of daily life.
There are little sculptural features dotted about the landscape as nature itself gathers and collects - massive wood ant nests of collected pine needles, branches and trunks of fallen trees which are caught up in other trees, colourful fungi which form bowl-like structures and gather dew, fallen birch leaves and tiny insects passing by. Humans work the land by collecting - and take what they need, but not more. Wood is carefully stacked and stored for fuel, hay is stored (I'm fascinated by the hay structures), barns hold food and fuel. Buildings seem to sit so wonderfully in the landscape, as if they are at one with it - building materials are mostly wood with paints created from earthen pigments, so the structures made by man seem gentle and just respectfully placed on the land - nothing brash or egotistical about them.
I'm back in the school almost the whole of this week, I'm in there lots whilst here as part of the Lab 13 project work with Ignite. It's such a lovely little school - and blog posts about all that work will follow. There's so much to be learnt from the Finnish education system I feel...