Tytärsaari
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”Saari voi olla kauhea paikka sille, joka lähestyy sitä ulkoapäin. Kaikki on valmista, kukin omalla paikallaan, sinnikkäästi, rauhallisesti ja itseriittoisesti. Heidän rantojensa sisäpuolella kaikki toimii rituaalien mukaan, jotka ovat monista kertaamisista tulleet kivikoviksi, ja samalla he harhaavat päiviensä halki niin oikullisesti ja umpimähkään kuin maailma loppuisi horisonttiin.”
Tove Jansson (Kesäkirja 1972).
My project with Tytärsaari island started in fall 2017, when I was about to write my Fine Arts thesis for Turku University Of Applied Sciences. I really had no clue what I wanted to write about, as I had tried out many different artistical- and art educational methods during my four year studies.
I spent the whole summer of 2017 writing and reading, and at some point I came across a book about the island of Tytärsaari, an uninhabited and also non-accessible island, from where my ancestors originate. The island was a part of Finland until WW2, when it became a part of the Sovjet-Union. It’s now a part of Russia and the access to the island is strictly restricted.
My written thesis became an attempt to dig deeper in my own roots, and in that way find out a new way of artistic reasearch for myself. The bid to get to the island of Tytärsaari, both as a metaphor such as a concrete act, was the starting point and theme of the thesis.
Umplaari, ink and acrylic on plywood, 120 x 300 x 300cm, 2018. Photo: Anni Haunia
The other, artistic part of my thesis, took form as an installation by the name ‘Umplaari’. ‘Umplaari’ is a dialect word from the island of Tytärsaari and means ‘the container of the forgotten words’. The installation was a part of NYTT 2018 Fine Art students graduation show in Turku 2018.
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