Silence Awareness Existence - Artist Residency, Finland

I have just returned from a month in Finland. A life changing month. I participated in an thematic residency at Arteles Creative Centre called Silence Awareness Existence, which focused on restoration and retreat amongst the stillness of winter. I came to Arteles to nurture areas of my practice which lean less on physically large scale work. Immersed in the beauty of the snow and restorative stillness, expanses of my imagination woke up and I played.

I played with words. I found the clarity to articulate the underpinnings of my practice and I wrote, then embroidered my manifesto. Short stories and attempts to bring into creation an inner world that I’ve imagined since childhood, have begun to belong on the page. 

Explorations between found materials, the frozen landscape and moments of self care and mindfulness also emerged. I experimented with pine needle tea made with melted snow collected from where I had rolled naked after a sauna, to develop 35mm photographic film, which I fixed in salt solution made with the sauna water I washed in.

Successes and failures in the development process brought an unpredictability to seeing images emerge in film of the landscape I was engrossed, lost, washed and found in. I became intrigued by the entanglement of chemistry, materials, my body and cleansing in the process of making photographs.

Discovering silence was especially powerful for me. Experiencing the kindling of deep trust and intimacy through shared silence with strangers, was awe inspiring. Strangers soon felt like family. I return home with a life changing meditation practice, a deep sense of clarity on the purpose and direction of my work, and lifelong gratitude to Arteles.