Series Modern Nomads, years 2001-2003
The photos in the Modern Nomads tell about a modern person, who is totally lost in her traditional Sámi environment. She
doesn´t understand her position. She walks on the mountains following the footsteps of her ancestors, reindeer-herdsmen.
The movement continues, but the frame of reference is different.
Part of the pictures have been taken in Fiord Varang in Norway. That´s the place where the first inhabitants of NorthScandinavian, Sámi people, came about 10 000 years ago. They were nomads, who wandered over the country, looking
for game. The tanks of the multinational oil companies rise today there, where the Sami huts stood before.
Modern Nomads
Mount Palopää, Utsjoki, 2001
editio 9 + 2 ap
chr. c-print on aluminium, framed
71 x 85 cm
Mount Annivaara, Utsjoki, 2002
editio 9 + 2 ap
chr. c-print on aluminium, framed
117 x 93 cm
Tourist Attraction, Inari, 2002
editio 9 + 2 AP
chr. c-print on aluminium, framed
100 x 120 cm
Go-between (noaidi), Inari, 2002
editio 9 + 2 AP
chr. c-print on aluminium, framed
96 x 118 cm
Sacrificial Rock (Sieida), Fiord Varang, 2002
editio 9 + 2 AP
chr. c-print on aluminium, framed
72 x 88 cm
Series Darkness, year 2010
In the Sami mythology, the world will end in a natural catastrophe, after which there will remain nothing. For example, a violent
frost can descend at any time and freeze everything. Life will simply cease to exist when all time comes to a close. This old myth
remains topical even today. In an age of climate change and unchecked population growth, it does seem that we are indeed
exhausting our planet. On the other hand, nature is tenacious and seems always capable of rising from the ruins of human greed.
Although the photographs are taken all over the world, they are based on the Sami conception of nature, which has always
regarded nature as animistic. Nature is sacred and valuable, even mystical, and even inorganic nature is considered alive. As a
concept, ‘the sacred’ in particular is situated in the high mountains, deep lakes, or prominent stones or trees in the landscape.
In my pictures, I reinterpret the old idea of the sacred, silent space. Not only mountains, but even an empty petrol station glowing
alone in the night can be seen as a mysterious, ritual site, and quite literally a source of energy. Under the surface, the works also
embody the potential of death and destruction caused by man. The dark palette and the emptiness in the pictures emphasise the
sense of non-places, of landscapes "after Man".
Darkness
Kärsämäki, 2010
editio 7 + 2 ap
pigment print on aluminium, framed
52 x 78 cm
Series Silence - jaskes eatnamat, year 2014
My newest photographs are taken in North of Scandinavia, and in Kola Peninsula in Russia. It is actually the area which is
considered to be Sámi area today. I´ve been interested in the contradiction between the nature and the industrial areas there:
especially the mining areas and the artificial ”mountains”, and also the refinery factory buildings.
I wanted to observe and show what kind of marks these industries leave on land and landscape. For example in Kiruna the original
Mount Kiruna is ruined. I wonder what that means mentally for those Sámi people, who´s ancestors have lived in that area for
centuries. Is that a living, visible sign of colonialism for them, still today? Or just a mark of wellfare and modern way of living?
Silence - jaskes eatnamat
Monchegorsk, 2014
editio 3+2 AP, diasec,framed
130 x 180 cm
editio 3+2 AP
80 x 120 cm
Olenegorsk, 2014
editio 3+2 AP, diasec, framed
120 x 180 cm
editio 3+2 AP
80 x 120 cm
Zapolyarny, 2014
editio 6+2 AP
pigment print on aluminium,framed
75 x 113 cm
Kiruna, 2014
editio 6+2 AP
pigment print on
aluminium,framed
75 x 120 cm
Vardø, 2014
editio 6+2 AP
pigment print on aluminium,
framed
75 x 113 cm
An installation view from the
exhibition Silence - jaskes eatnamat
in Gallery Forum Box, Helsinki
2014.
In the exhibition there was a video
work Flowers of Kola Peninsula
projected to the water pool on the
floor.
Behind the pool on the wall there is
a photograph diptych Alta.