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The video is part of artistic research that explores a dialogue between human, non-human, and forces of the land in Utsjoki, Finland. In this artistic research, walking is used as a method to connect with the environment. During the walks, small amounts of soil – sand, stones, and clay – is gathered and processed further in a studio. Some soil is transformed to slips and used when painting hand-built vases made from the gathered clay. The fired vases are placed temporarily in local rivers. The result is a series of three vase experiments done in a dialogue between human, soil, water, and the forces of the land. The video presents the third vase experiment, where the vase is built from the local clay. The motifs of the painting are the nationally endangered animals: arctic fox, fell owl and glacial salmon. In the River Teno catchment, small juvenile salmon often spend some of their first years of life in tiny tributaries, which they enter from their birth place, the spawning areas in the main stem of the river. One of these nursery streams being Geassemahjohka. The vase is positioned in Geassemahjohka, which is running to the main stem of the River Teno some 70 km upstream from the estuary. Via the experiment we speculate: can act of crafting vase be conceived as act of caring, the vase being thus a symbolic shelter for the salmon?
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The video was made in Utsjoki, Finland, in June 2024. It features a ceramic vase collaborating with the forces of water. The video work is also a collaboration between Maarit Mäkelä and Priska Falin. Researchers Jaakko Erkinaro and Juha Hiedanpää placed the vase in Geassemahjohka, next to River Teno, where it had the potential to provide a home for juvenile salmon.
Ceramic vase: Maarit Mäkelä, local clay, Nivajoki, 2024.
Video: Priska Falin, Geassemahjohka/Nivajoki, 2024.