Heli Änkö
By The Fountain
Galleria Huuto Uudenmaankatu
17.10.–28.10.2007
I watch thee, fountain, at your side
You are so fair and clear
In the mirror you create
I see a cloud so sheer.
Oh, there’s a cloud so shimmering,
bright and beautiful
Alas! It hurried soon away
whispering, “Farewell.”
Wond’ring everything I saw
I wander through my soul
So many golden wisps of cloud
have left me quite alone.
*) From J. L. Runeberg: Dikter II (‘Poems II’), 1833. The English translation has been performed using the Finnish one from 1845 by Elias Lönnrot as the source text. Runeberg – the national poet of Finland – was Swedish-speaking. (Translator’s note)
I usually only read poems when I’m in love. An old, worn-out poem can, surprisingly enough, become a bright new key into what’s here and now. With its clarity of form and harmony, the poem Lähteellä (‘By the Fountain’) by J. L. Runeberg is rather classicist. As the narrator of the poem identifies with the fountain and the wisps of cloud come to symbolize meaningful encounters, the description of the scenery becomes a description of the narrator’s soul.
In this exhibition, I have wanted to bring out paths that lead to moments in which track of time disappears. A tremendous experience of timelessness can hit you in the middle of most trivial activities, like doing the dishes, or queuing at the supermarket. Could the gates of Shangri-La, the secret garden, be open to all of us, all the time?
What is your path to the fountain of consciousness like – overgrown or widely stamped?
