Edwina Goldstone
Intimate Resistance
10.-25.9.2016
Galleria Huuto Jätkäsaari, Jätkä 1
Welcome and come along to hear some traditional karelian songs and lullabies, with
ukulele & kantele instrumental accompaniment! Music event in exhibition “Lauluja Karjalan mailta”
is a solo performance by Silja Palomäki on Thursday 15.9. at 16.30 til 17.00.
72 years ago approximately 450,000 Finnish Karelians were forced by the ravages of war to leave their homes, land, possessions and way of life, entire communities and their sub-cultures wiped off the map.
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” – George Orwell
Among the most enduring scars left by war are the destroyed landscapes, architectural destruction damages far more than mere buildings and goes beyond “collateral damage,” but rather can be seen as calculated acts of cultural annihilation. At a time of great social change and global unrest, our history defines who and what we are, it is our identity and goes on to inform how future generations view us.
Through the discovery early in 2011 at a local flea-market of approximately 300-400 old photographic glass negatives, that records a small community Nurmi –Vahviala part of the Karelian Isthmus, (Luzhayka, Russian name)documenting an entire community; their everyday lives, industry, architecture, social culture and traditions between the years 1924 – 1940 prior to the mass evacuation. Both architecture and photographic materials are forever changing with time: eroding and moving towards futility. However, there is a sentient quality about both surfaces – a fragility that speak pleasurably of memory and the human condition. Maybe more than any other technology or art form, the photograph can provide us with tools to better perceive and respond to change. When viewers engage with a photograph, they see something that is not there. The photograph has the power to resurrect a mental image in the viewer’s mind, which allows it to take on a new existence. Life occurrences, desires and imaginings transform a memory into a new experience.
Like a century-old Facebook, the discovery of this 80 – 90 year old time capsule has brought these images to light – and if the faces, traditions and culture from the past can be restored and preserved, so too is the dignity of people long vanished.
Intimate Resistance exhibition features photographs, installations and video stories that reflect on forgetting history and how world history events displace entire communities and their microcultures, which then integrate with the majority culture and run the risk of ceasing to exist.
Edwina Goldstone (b. 1962. England) is a contemporary artist working across multiple disciplines, from sculptural installations to painting, drawing, live art and socially engaged art projects. Goldstone is known for the use of found objects in her work that are imbued with personal histories and cultural significance.
The exhibition has been supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Häme Fund and made possible by the cooperation of the Karjalan Liitto : Vahviala-seura ry.
Part of Found & Lost II Project supported by SKR – Hämeen rahasto.
https://www.facebook.com/FoundLost-II-1570925196550381/
Edwina Goldstone / +358 520 8312 / edwina_goldstone(at)hotmail.com / www.edwina408.wordpress.com
