Maa, joka kuiskaa / The earth that whispers

Solo exhibition, Gallery Ratamo.

Jyväskylä, Finland.

October, 2022.

The earth that whispers is the conclusion of a filming project begun more than ten years ago, a memoir of a time that no longer exists. It is a ceremony of decay, a bundle of past memories; It is a web of bodies pressed together, eyes twinkling in the spring sun and the pulse of the night. It is buried, and risen from the grave.

The exhibition features two types of photographs that use disappearance as part of the process. Anthotype is an old photographic technique in which an image is created from plant dyes and sunlight. The image is not permanent, but continues to fade when exposed to light. Similarly, partly decomposed photographic prints are also in the midst of their own transformation of disappearance.

The earth sighs. It rises and falls. I sink my hands into the soil. The worm gnaws the surface of the picture. I search, I dig, I gather, I clean. I will not find everything, some of it has become something else, turned to humus. Only holes are left. I dust the fragile paper, search the dust for familiar faces. I recognize a look, remember a moment.

I watch the worm move through the picture. In its belly, the whole world.

Compost waste becomes a colour, the sun turns it into an image. Pale features emerge after days, stay there for a moment. The sun continues its work. The image fades and disappears. Until paper is just paper again.

The wilting earth whispers, I don't know what it's saying.

Around me the grass withers. A time of mourning.