First, I must confess I didn’t know what Kaamos was nor even heard such word before being invited to this exhibition. Kaamos is something that happens during the winter in Finland. When the Finnish winter comes, the nights will be long, the days will be lightless and wan, and snow will cover all, like a silent, cold shroud.
In my research I discovered there are two meanings to the word Kaamos. One is the English equivalent to one meaning of the word, namely, polar night: that period when, north of the Arctic Circle, the sun doesn’t rise for a couple of days in the darkest winter. The second meaning of the word Kaamos, whether the snow is early or late, is a mental state: winter depression.
Kaamos: Polar Night is a project produced during the winter of 2010. The artist interviewed women —From Finland and elsewhere— about their way of ‘surviving’ the Kaamos.
The result is a profound piece showcasing the women’s portraits along brief, fortune-cookie-like excerpts from the wisdom they shared. Some of their writing includes “Ice-swimming at Uunissari!” or ”Winter resets the mental, the state of mind.”
Kaamos: Polar Night is a moving piece which could only have been conceived by a unique, sensitive artist.
Nurri Kim’s work invites us to see those subtleties, those fleeting details that often tend to escape our consciousness. She thinks of her work as an “archeology of the moment,” with the aim of restoring to awareness “the things that we see too often, and then forget to see.”
Kim’s latest work Kaamos: Polar Night is now showing until the end of January at Kallio Kunstalle in Helsinki. Check it out! … Hey, you can even write your own Kaamos experience.
For more of the artist’s work visit Do Projects.
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