I created this installation for the 195th anniversary exhibition celebrating the birth of Elias Lönnrot, compiler of the Finnish epic Kalevala.
The work centers on a historical sound recording of Oksena Mäkiselkä, one of the many oral poets specializing in itkuvirsi—traditional Finnic lamentations performed through crying and sobbing. In this recording from 1921, she laments the harsh fate of Mother Earth. Her voice seems to emerge from Tuonela, the afterworld in Finnish mythology—the island where neither the sun nor the moon ever shines.
She moves slowly in a circular motion, while her voice is distributed through four ventilation pipes, shifting in space as she walks.