MOVING
Yelëva
The vast grandeur of sublimity is impossible to fully absorb, comprehend or articulate; leaving so much more for further reflection. The contradictions within sublimity and Finnish “kaiho” are the foundation of Ylevä where memory and history are constructed through technological limitations. As with memory over time, technology fails, leaving us without the full picture but longing for mere fragments, vignettes of connection, experience and feeling.
This is a short clip of each of the six channels
Looking for Adam Gibson: 'Going to the Sauna of Broken Hearts'
This is a video response to a winter video made in 2012 by Adam Gibson. Like Adam I travel to the Sauna of Lonely Hearts. Although my journey to the sauna takes a different path during a different season, I too am left lonely and alone.
Löyly
This is one side of an abandoned conversation. The name of the piece references an event in the sauna where cool water is scooped from a bucket with a long handled spoon and thrown onto the hot sauna rocks. The resulting steam and heat is both oppressive and at the same time comforting.
Piilosta (hide and seek)
I was adopted and grew up without my own cultural context. Seeking to identify my history, and my place in the world, I took several DNA tests. After learning my ancient ancestors came from Finland, I traveled there searching for traces, for belonging. This performance is about the painful realization that this aspect of my identity is lost to me. Despite my yearning for a familiar connection and being in Finland, I will not be a part of the Finnish culture nor will I ever understand what it is to be Finnish. Cocooned for 5 hours, I would never transform but existed as a voyeur, watching…wishing.
Thinking of you #1
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️😚
a caged bird
A caged bird has nothing but the will to escape. In desperation, she beats her wings and flings herself against the bars; the cage's latch can only be opened from outside, and the bird's owner holds the key. Even if the bird escapes it may perish, having no knowledge of the world. Perhaps a passer-by will see that cage, and the bird within struggling to escape, and will bend the bars apart so that the bird can squeeze through.