Research | Momentum

During the stay in Finland, the spirit and core value of -Sami (the one and only ethnic minority in Finland) which I have learned from the course-- Introduction of Arctic Culture, and some exhibitions, were really a big hit to me on the perception of the world and understanding on nature, which gave me more idea on the way capturing them (on the Finland set of photography).

Their belief of animalism, which is a belief that all animals and nature have their own soul, affects their attitude toward nature.

That is a very different kind of concept to the world, especially, to a person like me who grew up in a business-orientated city.

Marja Helander / Sami multimedia artist

She showed her concerns about the environmental issue through photography. She revealed the deteriorating nature in an artistic approach with documenting manner: the changes of Sami people life, the construction in nature, the power station in the pure nature. One of her projects, DARKNESS, SEAVDNJAT, disclose the fact that our planet is exhausted by human greed in a Sami animistic perspective. Helander explained in her artist statement, “reinterprets the old idea of ‘the sacred’. Not only mountains, but even an empty petrol station glowing alone in the night can be seen as a mysterious, ritual site, and quit literally a source of energy. Under the surface, the works also embody the potential of death and destruction caused by man. The dark palette and the emptiness in the pictures emphasize the sense of non-places, of landscapes” after Man”.” Her photography showed me another possibility to express the “dying nature” via redefining the term “scared”.