Made in collaboration with nature, this work involves installation and performance. ‘Luontosuhde’ is a Finnish word that describes our connection to the land, to the earth. During August of 2023, I completed a month-long artist residency at Arteles Creative Center in Haukijärvi, Finland.
When I contemplate the space of safety and development that is my time at Arteles, I can’t help but call to mind the womb: a sacred place of protection and growth, one in which we exist in-between worlds and our sole purpose is to be and to grow.
This installation includes a cyanotype that aesthetically alludes to ultrasound imagery and projected on the walls is video from the hours-long process of composing and exposing the cyanotype outdoors before, during, and after a morning’s dawn. Encircling the cyanotype of my body, a trail of forest limbs and plants weave throughout the building, out the back door, and into our metsä, our forest: an umbilical cord to the land, the land which births and sustains us all.
