sunnuntai 3. syyskuuta 2023

Draw and sail, sail and draw, July 2023

I sailed with my family members from Finland to Latvia via Gotland on our old wooden boat. We wanted to follow old sea routes that also have been used for trade between Gotland and Livonia since the 11th century. One of my aims in Aizpute was to work on my drawings from my impressions from the sailing. Another was to study the old Liv villages on the northern shore of the Kurzeme peninsula.


 Sketch of boat graveyard in Liv village of Mazirbe


Working on a boatlife-selfie in Aizpute


In Aizpute, I worked with my drawings. Also many other things happened! I had the opportunity to learn about the history of the Jews of Aizpute thanks to the English language publication published by SERDE. And by chance, I got to join the research trip to look for possible mass graves outside the village. I was impressed with what I read and saw. In the forest, I imagined how the trees know what happened at that time in 1941. The earth also knows - we learned that elevated phosphorus levels in soil can reveal human remains. But information and memories told by people themselves are always a little uncertain. The installation I made is based on these moods. I used the bark of a tree and soil from the forest by the supposed mass grave, and old vacuum cleaner bags.

Installation: What really happened in that forest in 1941?

I just couldn't resist the temptation to play with the clothesline, because in Finland the laundry is hung in a different way. I did different tests, and the funniest was the one where I wrote a Finnish nursery rhyme with a certain letter missing. Then, by moving the clothesline, that letter slowly went to each missing point in the poem on the line. We made some videos of this “letter magic”.


 

Letter magic on clothesline