‘The relation between land and weather does not cut across an impermeable interface between earth and sky but is rather one between the binding and unbinding of the world.’
Tim Ingold, Earth, sky, wind and weather.
After 5 years of conversation and planning, we are finally here….. Kilpisjärvi Biological Station as part of the Ars Bioarctica residency.
Kilpisjärvi is a village in the municipality of Enontekiö, Lapland, Finland. It is located in Finland’s northwestern “arm” near the northwesternmost point of Finland.
I have travelled here with two friends, Dr Sarah Robinson and Dr Donna Franklin, artists, fellow researchers and walkers. Conceived before lockdown this project has been developing through conversation, material interrogation and an ambition to reveal the possibilities of linking art and science to transform perceptions hidden and invisible landscapes. We each have our own practice, and this project sits as a threshold, overlapping and providing a space where we each meet and share.
It took several days to adjust, not only to recover the long journey north but also to discover, find and align my rhythm with that of this place.
I have been both overwhelmed and humbled by the presence of this place, the light, energy and at the same time the quiet and calmness. It is a total emersion, instantly enveloping every sense.
In my work I am particularly interested in the resonance of place, how our bodies connect to a landscape through walking and magnetic vibrations. Rhythms, invisible energy, and movement meet, collide, interact and inform our responses and connection. I am learning how to listen to energy received by my walking body through water dowsing. Guided by the elemental pull of hazel and the connection made through the hand.
Carbon synthesis seeks to explore and reveal invisible landscapes, micro-environments which require us to feel and see in new ways. Spaces which resist being fully understood or contained without challenging our usual perception, imagination and human timescales. I am only just beginning to understand how quiet I need to be to begin seeing and hearing this place.
I approached this residency the same way I always begin a project, to find new ways of seeing through being present. I am naturally drawn to spaces which are often dismissed as being empty or in between but because they are left over spaces, it is possible to reinvent and reimagine them.
These spaces are as much my studio as my actual studio. They are my breathing spaces, my thinking spaces, my collecting spaces, they are full of moments which shift the way you think and see.
This place is different though, already a site of observation and international attention, it is perceived as a landscape which holds both clues and answers for our most pressing global environmental questions.
Over the coming weeks I will walk and re-walk well-trodden paths, seeking moments of confluence and collision, stillness and energy, trying to find new ways of seeing through silence and geological vibrations. Our residency coincides with the transition from summer to arctic winter. Everything is in flux, not quite sure of its new rhythm and I feel this reluctance and pull. An oscillation between movement and imposed stillness as winter reminds the earth to be still.
