landscape -maisema

the landscape is Karkkila, Finland. the scene: a place of arrival and departure. this vision presents an encounter with a space where apparently nothing happens, but where familiar and unfamiliar events occur. certain feelings of recognition incite the onlooker to identify with the scene, but not quite...

coincidental interacting events conspire to disorientate. the realisation that lights go on and off at set times enters the observer’s consciousness as an expectation fulfilled. the ringing of a bell at the precise moment one figure breaches the personal space of another remains paradoxical. in the mind of the viewer, alien to the location, meaning or explanation is sought, but not readily found. even the origin of the sound is impossible to situate.

a feeling of calm, edged with apprehension, pervades. attempting to allay the disquiet, identification with the space, or aspects of the experience of the space, confirms the communality of human existence.

yet travel outside known locations generates countless new experiences, leaving little chance or space for contemplation. nevertheless, for the onlooker, the very experiences that invite contemplation are dependent on chance happenings within the observed space. minute changes of colour and atmosphere are enhanced when observed, quietly, over time. for the silent viewer, such small mutations acquire a new and heightened significance. by repeated experience of the unfamiliar, the outsider begins to promote a frail sense of ownership. until the unfamiliar re-exerts itself, if by no other instrument, then by the all-engulfing white of the snow-laden landscape.

jb/05