Sometimes works emerge from stories. Here is one of them:
“Outside, it’s raining and the biting wind is lashing the sparse trees. We sit in our sacred hut, like in a warm womb. The outside world doesn’t exist. Over these weekends, we’ve become a family, we have created a sweat connection.
Someone brings in red-hot stones from the fire pit outside and places them one at a time into the hole dug in the center of the hut, using the antlers of some animal as tools. We throw water and greet the steaming stones, our ancestors.
Suddenly the heat is overwhelming. Nauseating. I breathe in the muddy ground. It is impossible to escape, I have to go through it. I see how fragile the veil between life and death is. Mothers before me come close, and I feel the endless umbilical cord, the root between us.
But this is not my land. And this ritual is not mine. Not like this. I miss home, something that is my own. I’m startled by the question: what do I even know about it?
The journey begins.”
Pauliina Jokela is a Helsinki-based visual artist who works in the Savio artist community in Kerava. Jokela earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the South Karelia University of Applied Sciences in 2004. Since then, she has earned a Master of Arts degree from the department of sculpture at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn and a master’s degree in art education from Aalto University. Jokela has had solo exhibitions and taken part in joint and group exhibitions in both Finland and abroad. Most recently, her works have been exhibited in summer 2025 at the Mänttä Art Festival, Kuusisto Art Manor in Kaarina, and the Kumpula Botanic Garden in Helsinki.
Thank you
Eemu and Neeme, Mom, Dad and Little Brother, Pinja Mustajoki, Sweat Lodge Skólann, Association of Traditional Sauna Healers, Toiska Sauna Choir, Water Mothers, Savio Art Collective, Miia Kallio, Friends, Galleria Huuto.
Contact details
www.pauliinajokela.com
pauliina.jokela (a) gmail.com
