Carbon Synthesis evolved during 2020, our aim was to develop an ongoing creative project which responded to deep time and connections through carbon; to use our individual arts practices to reveal invisible narratives creating innovative ways of witnessing climate change.
The global restrictions of 2020 created a need to re-evaluate our terms of engagement with the world, and the physical spaces we could explore became smaller. As the world held its breath, a unique moment in time manifested where virtual conversation and friendship became our new reality. Our original residency was put on hold until international travel became possible again but none of us imagined it would take quite so long.
For the last 5 years our virtual creative responses have formed propositions which have created significant exchanges in ideas and challenged our personal practices. Ideas and approaches were formulated ready to take to Kilpisjärvi. Carbon synthesis explores and reveals invisible narratives and micro-environments which require us to feel and see in new ways. Indeed, spaces which resist being fully understood or contained without challenging our usual perception, imagination and human timescales.
Arriving
Arriving from Western Australia and England our individual journeys brought us all together for the first time in Kilpisjärvi. It took several days to adjust, not only to recover from the long journey north including a wild six-hour taxi ride, but also to discover, find and align our rhythms with that of this unique place.
We were all overwhelmed and humbled by the presence of the place, the light, energy and at the same time the quiet and calmness. From the moment we arrived it was a total immersion, instantly enveloping every sense.
‘Everywhere where there is interaction between a place, a time and an expenditure of energy,
there is rhythm.’ Henri Lefebvre. 1992. Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life
The Lake
Sarah Robinson, Lake Kilpisjärvi, 2024. Work in progress. Photographer Tracy Hill
Lake Kilpisjärvi had an immediate and constant presence and rhythm, reflecting the huge sky above, mesmerising pulses of motion ever present. Time measured through the flowing of water and the visible geological time bearing witness through rock and stone. In a world dominated by speed and immediacy, the act of looking and listening emerged as a refuge of slowness, a space where time stretched out, where it was possible for moments to be appreciated, and every detail observed with care.
Slowness can be seen as a rebellion against the urgency that defines our digital world. It demands time, patience, and perseverance. Our durational activities were often measured through silent observation and stillness rather than purely active creation. This approach was a search for the intangible, the invisible, to reveal the unseen and unheard. Seeing through slowness encouraged a restorative notion of curiosity and respect.
For four weeks our daily encounters radiated outwards from Lake Kilpisjärvi, journey’s taken on foot exploring the paths of Saana and Malla, trying to find new ways of seeing through silence and thinking through geological vibrations, seeking moments of historical confluence and collision.
Donna Franklin
Would you love a Monster Man?
“First came the Wind, then Reindeer, then Humans” Leena Valkeapää.
Nothing quite prepares you for the immensity of the environment that is Kilpisjärvi. It is a place that fills you with a humble wonder and awe. The elements that shape life, stone, moss, lichen are unforgiving. To survive here you need resilience, respect, adaptability, and to listen; “The fastest and easiest way to travel is to change something in yourself” Hannu Autto. Like the mountain birch, to bend and move with the wind, rain and ice that resonates around Saana, and yet to have roots that grow deep and strong in the spongy earth.
Discovering that “trees have memory” Lauri Linna.
In silence - you must remain if searching for an encounter, in some places, you could be transported back deep into a time before the naked ape descended...
‘Frankenstein’s Creature, who learns the ways of the world through the groaning of glaciers in the Alps, who is spotted most often in resplendent, icy spaces, knows that a continuity binds body and world’. Jeremey Cohen, Undead (A Zombie Oriented Ontology), Vol. 23, No. 3, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 2012.
To hold the smallest shark in the world from a lake that touches the sky.
All biological life fascinates me; especially fungi - formed when lightning struck the earth - Life on the periphery, symbionts, Chimera zombies and Gaia. The kernel of this research began with a painting, where a mother gathers up her son’s body and begs for the nectar of life.
Donna Franklin, Deukalian i, 2024
Donna Franklin, Deukalian ii, 2024
Donna Franklin, Blood of my blood, 2024
Donna Franklin, Ode beginning, 2024, Photographer Tracy Hill
Donna Franklin, Of Spores and Crumb Hooks, 2024, Photographer Tracy Hill
Tracy Hill
My investigations always begin with walking and being present. I am naturally drawn to spaces which are often dismissed as being empty. Quite quickly I realised that this place is different, anything but empty, it is a site of observation, widely understood and acknowledged as a unique landscape containing answers to significant global environmental questions.
I am particularly interested in the resonance of place, how our bodies connect to a landscape through walking and magnetic vibrations. Rhythms, invisible energy, and movement meet, collide, interact and inform our responses and connection.
Henri Lefebvre wrote about a technique he called ‘rhythmanalysis’, which uses rhythm as a mode of analysis. Lefebvre proposed that our bodies can be seen as a collection of rhythms which are the result of our history, our senses and bodily actions such as breath, pulse and voice. These embodied histories enable those who are willing to listen, to hear the rhythm of the wind and the rain; but also, by understanding their slowness to hear the constant rhythm of trees, stones, lichen and fungus.
Through durational observations I have recorded moments of light, UV levels, wind and air pressure. Listening through stillness. Walking paths of subterranean springs, guided by traditional dowsing using a forked hazel. For me, it is about witnessing the everyday, building knowledge through repetition, building familiarity and multisensory understanding through slow journeys taken on foot.
Tracy Hill, The Colour of Water, 2024. Lake Kilpisjärvi. Photographer Tracy Hill
Tracy Hill, Mitatun, (measured), 2024, recording UV cycles. Photographer Tracy Hill
Tracy Hill, Dowsing Saana Fell, 2024. Photographer Tracy Hill
Tracy Hill, Walking Saana, 2024. Photographer Tracy Hill
Sarah Robinson
Fielding | 69° N & 20° E | Kilpisjärvi as a Matrix
I came to this environment intrigued. Curiosity toward arctic light and the growth patterns of Arctoparmelia centrifuga lichen in relation to Microbial lightness affecting Albedo. I began by conceiving the rock, slope and Lake Kilpisjärvi as a matrix to create drawings, intervene in the environment by wearing a forensic suit in the environment, alongside collecting digital data with a drone tied to a walking pole.
Questions started to emerge: How do small things see? How can drawing extend beyond instrumental possibility? and could traditionally smoked etching plates measure the light in the environment? Initially, I planned to return to my drawing practice away from the digital touch.
Donna Livingstone, from the Canadian Whyte Museum said ‘Artists are cultural and environmental first responders’, so I have a lot of thinking to do as I develop works in a time when the Anthropocene is officially excluded from the geological timescale, whereby Livingstone concludes ‘as such, it will remain an invaluable descriptor in human-environment interactions.
Sarah Robinson, I am Here (i), 2024, Kilpisjärvi. Photographer Sarah Robinson
Sarah Robinson, I am Here (ii), 2024, Kilpisjärvi. Photographer Sarah Robinson
Sarah Robinson, Searching for Answers 2024, Kilpisjärvi. Photographer Sarah Robinson
Sarah Robinson, Snow Etching, 2024, Kilpisjärvi. Photographer Sarah Robinson
Homeward Bound
As we each return home to our daily rhythms, in different hemispheres, we must begin to try to understand our residency experience and the new knowledge afforded us. It is impossible to perceive our time in Kilpisjärvi through vision alone. To truly understand we must draw on the memory of moments experienced, the paths walked, the food shared, the people met, and conversations held with species both human and non-human throughout the matrix that is Kilpisjärvi.
We would like to thank everyone who helped make our residency such a gift, we would like to especially thank Milla Millasnoore, Bioart Society (Communication Manager & Residency Coordinator) and for the inspirational listening and being workshop. Ars Bioarctica residency mentor Leena Valkeapää, for her fantastic insightful conversations that helped us understand a little more about acknowledging the Sámi culture and its mysticism, and her generous support throughout our residency. Also, for the intellectual and comradery of fellow artist in residence, Lauri Linna for taking us on a day trip to Norway, where we found an enormous Atlantic halibut fish head by a fiord!
Lastly, a huge thankyou to all of the welcoming staff at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Research Station: Hannu Autto, Station Manager, Pirjo Hakala, Station Administration, Kalevi Laurila!! Krisi the Chef and all the kitchen, and all the station maintenance team! Maija Sujala, Fish Research Technician, Oula Kalttopää, Laboratory Mechanic and Tutkimuskoordinaattori / Research Coordinator: Anu Ruohomäki. We are grateful to meet such extraordinary people.
After A Day’s Work, 2024, Kilpisjärvi. Photographer Sarah Robinson
Kiitos…for the most life changing experience we had for ourselves and our arts practice in the Sub-Arctic region of Kilpisjärvi.
Walking Shadows, 2024, Kilpisjärvi. Photographer Sarah Robinson