Finnish Sightings
A work first shown at Rantakasarmi Gallery in Suomenlinna, featuring a found art globe, altered with paint, mixed media and with string from places to ‘blown up images’ inspired by meeting or seeing Finns outside of Finland.
I never knew where Finland was on the world map until I moved here. Now it follows me around wherever I go. The world is smaller than you think.
Photos taken by Antti Luostarinen.
Petaluma, California, usa
It turns out that a lovely Finnish woman lives down the street from my childhood home. I’ve never met her.
Kauai, Hawaii, USA
We had avoided anything Finland related for the entire honeymoon, then, on the last day of our honeymoon at the beach when rinsing off, there it was. Someone was speaking Finnish behind us. It was a father trying to convince his young daughter that it was not scary to rinse off with the shower. We didn’t say anything and laughed about it later in the car.
San Francisco, California, USA
We were walking around San Francisco, when we heard Finnish. Turning we saw a couple on the corner discussing which way to go, lost. We ran into them twice. Of course we didn’t talk to them. One of us was Finnish.
It’s an unsaid rule, Finns don’t talk to other Finns when abroad.
London, UK
There is a Finnish family visiting London. They are sitting on the Underground Tube train with, when one family member notices a girl sitting across from them wearing in their opinion a little too much makeup. They comment to the other family members about it in Finnish.
Then the girl’s phone rings and she answers, “Moi.”
Milan, Italy
In la Rinascente, a large department store in Milan there is an elevator that goes from the bottom floor to the top. A Finnish woman who lives in Milan with her Italian husband gets on the elevator with a group of other people. Everyone turns to face the door and the doors close. There is the moment of silence before the elevator is filled with Finnish as it turns out everyone else in the elevator is from Finland.
Visitors to the gallery were allowed to leave their own story of running into a Finn outside of Finland.