Dates:
Sat, 29 Aug 2026, 12:00–Wed, 16 Sept 2026, 17:00
My childhood in Ostrobothnia saw the scent of freshly baked bread wafting in through the windows of grandparents' homes. In the summers, the footsteps of grandchildren echoed across the closely shorn lawns, and the smoke from the old men's pipe tobacco traced ever-changing spirals above the yards. The air rang with the whistle of birdsong and the chatter of tractors, and the sounds of animals carried from the barns.
The grandmothers and grandfathers have gone. The livestock has gone. Even those who later brought new residents and cars to the yards have departed. Now it is quiet. The long-grown grass lies in the yard after the winter. The wind, rain, and cold - time - has bent the cottages and barns and eaten away at the walls. The birds here still fly, making their nests in the sheltered corners of the buildings.
I walk the hushed road through the village. I veer off into the yards, leaving tracks in the snow or the sodden lawn. I peer through the windows, breathing in the scent of the old, cooled walls. I remember the old neighbor and the plump, grey-haired woman in the next house, how she clapped her hands together laughing. I recall the local people, both those who were spoken of with respect and those pitied. I wonder how the time of those people is etched into these homes they once built, in the yards where perennials still bloom, in the outbuildings and birch trees that continue growing. I think that by painting this stilled landscape, I can make the passage of time visible - and lasting.
Then the yards begin to speak. I s...
Categories: Culture and art, Jyväskylä Art Street, Exhibitions and openings
Image credit: Riitta Lähdesmäki-Puttonen — event-only licence
Source: Event information supplied by Keski-Suomi Events open API (https://keskisuomievents.fi/).