AINO KEINÄNEN: THE STORY REMAINS

One way to honor ordinary forgotten people and their fates is to make up stories based on facts related to a particular era and setting. In this way, it can be thought that a person like the imagined character has really existed. Oral tradition also plays an important role. Thanks to that, the eternal chain of generations lives strong inside us.

The folding fabric in my pictures symbolizes history from the point of view from which we look at it at any given time. In my works, fabric has a meaning intertwined with the role of a woman, also as a garment, the covering and revealing of which have often been important issues from the point of view of people trying to control women. On the one hand, women are required to be beautiful and bare, and on the other hand, they are expected to cover themselves in order to be credible.

It is misleading to assume that the past was a time of only inequality and that equality was invented only in recent history. There have always been both. For example, our current non-binary understanding of gender is nothing new on a global scale. Emphasizing the inequality of the past also includes the danger of making current equality problems seem trivial. At worst, this can lead to a back pack.

Historical influencers are vital role models for new generations. Every time valuable things are destroyed, the comforting thing is that what remains is a story. We must not lose sight of the stories that tell of our innate tendency to act morally right. We need a more complete picture of history.

Aino Keinänen