History Archives - Page 10 of 11

by Marja-Leena

Finnish libraries

The Dome Hall, National Library of Finland

As I’ve mentioned before, I love reading Virtual Finland* for all kinds of interesting facts about my birth country. I knew that Finns have long led the world in reading and literacy. Here are some great articles to reveal their collective respect for literacy with their wonderful libraries, including an advanced library network called Library 10, a state-of-the-art library in the centre of Helsinki that acts as a living room and cultural and information centre open to all. This groundbreaking library opened in April 2005 and soon it was being lauded as an information centre the likes of which could not have been dreamed of by yesterday’s champions of popular education. Library 10 offers everyone a route to the information superhighway and the world of experiences, and library users can also create their own material.

Then there is the architectural gem The National Library, also in Helsinki, which we must try to visit our next time there. It exists to preserve printed treasures, ancient and modern. Its position, where east and west meet, make it unique. In its corridors and halls, old and new western and Finnish classics meet a comprehensive collection of 19th century Russian printed matter, including an exceptional assortment of works written in the eight minority languages of the empire. Read* about the many interesting historical collections preserved and displayed at this library.

Living out here on the very young west coast of Canada, I’m fascinated by the ancient history in Europe and other countries. Visitors from there, on the other hand, are enthralled with the young and modern here. I do like both, but here we must try to save more of the old for posterity, hmm? Certainly our libraries are not preserving history, yet.

* sadly Virtual Finland no longer exists, links removed

November 26, 2005 in Books, Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, History by Marja-Leena 2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Pekka Kivikäs

As my readers know, I’m nuts about prehistoric art, particularly that of northern Europe. One site that I check periodically is Arkeo.net**, a Finnish portal for archaeology fans. Recently I spotted a notice about some new books (PDF) that have come out.

I’m particularly keen on the two books by Pekka Kivikäs. “Rocks, Landscapes and Rock Paintings”, written in both English and Finnish, is about Finland’s pictographs, based on his many years of research. The other book “Ruotsin Pyyntikulttuurin Kalliokuvat Suomalaisin Silmin” (Sweden’s Prehistoric Rock Paintings Through a Finn’s Eyes), is based on the author’s 12 years of visits to Swedish sites. I’ve been hoping to get my hands on some of his books which have gone out of print, so I’ve eagerly ordered these two new ones from Akateeminen Kirjakauppa, a major bookstore in Helsinki which takes online orders and credit card payment. I can hardly wait.

Kivikäs was the subject of a very early post I wrote when starting this blog. I’ll repeat this quote:

The art teacher Pekka Kivikäs has become well-known for his work as an active documenter and publisher of Finnish rock paintings… the book is aimed at the wide circle of readers interested in the ancient culture of Finno-Ugric regions…Kivikäs considers rock art the silent message of man from behind the thousands of years….

Rereading this now, I’m struck by “silent message”, considering that my current working print series is titled “Silent Messengers”!

In 1999, Kivikäs’ home city of Jyväskylä honoured him and his life’s work by establishing the Kivikäs Prehistoric Centre. It features his immense research material of mostly Finland’s prehistoric rock paintings and continues the work of research, documentation, education and tours to the rock art sites. If I had known of this centre when visiting Jyväskylä in 2000, I sure would have gone there. Next time.

Unfortunately the website is only in Finnish because there’s some interesting reading about the history of the place, but have a look at the photos. My Finnish readers may enjoy it. The Centre is located on a historic 1763 property in the newer Kuokkola Manor, which was built in 1904 for the Swedish-Finnish businessman Julius Johnson.

A bit off the subject, I found it fascinating that the Manor was designed by a woman architect who was a classmate of the famous Eliel Saarinen amongst others. Wivi Lönn (1872-1966) (PDF in English) was the first Finnish woman to start an architectural agency. She gained the qualifications of architect in the 1890s during an era when women were only allowed entry into construction education programmes by dispensation. She had a long and successful career despite some overshadowing by male colleagues. Her last creation was at the age of 78, and she died at the age of 94.

UPDATE: In the comments below, Blogisisko pointed to an article in English about women architects in Finland in the Early 20th Century**, in which Wivi Lönn is included. She’s also written a post about her, with some photos coming soon.

Virtual Finland** is a wonderful resource on everything about Finland and I read it frequently. This time I did not delve into it, as I was really focusing on Pekka Kivikäs. Funny how easily one gets off the subject, especially when one finds such an interesting tidbit.

**the Virtual Finland and Arkeo links no longer exist, I’m sad to note.

September 26, 2005 in Books, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, History, Rock Art & Archaeology by Marja-Leena 3 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

blogs and shows

1. Thanks to blog friend Anna of Self-Winding for pointing out that The Padacia has posted a couple of my Nexus prints. Thanks also to this mystery blogger from Oslo – it’s nice to find another beautiful blog. Curiosity sent me to the first entry of October 27th, 2002 which explains the meanings of Padacia, and a browse through some of the older entries (some lovely writing) suggests a feminine voice of someone originally from Singapore.

2. Carolyn Zick, a Seattle artist-blogger Dangerous Chunky** writes about a visit to the Nordic Heritage Museum near Seattle to see Garth Amundsens’s work and to admire the Scandinavian exhibits, including Finland’s famed Marimekko. This brought to mind Robert Kaiser’s post about Marimekko, and Lucian Perkins great photos, in Finland Diary earlier this year.

By the way, and I’m late mentioning this, Carolyn has an exhibition** on this month at the Shift Gallery in Seattle, and she has a great website for it: Distill Bill**. Bre Pettis has posted a photo of Carolyn** in front of her work. Congratulations on some really great looking work and the show, Carolyn!

That’s two reasons I should be going to Seattle.

3. Oh, that reminds me, there’s another interesting exhibition coming up in the Seattle area: The Sami Exhibit, The Reindeer People of Alaska is a travelling exhibit to honor the Sami herders who came from Norway in 1894 and 1898 to teach reindeer herding skills to the Yup’ik and Inupiaq Peoples of Alaska. It’s at the Nordic Heritage Museum from October 7th to November 13th. Read all about it at Baiki, the International Sami Journal (and which I wrote about last December).

4. Finally, go see Anna L. Conti’s post Life echos Art. Wish I’d posted that!

UPDATED March 21st, 2013: **links have expired and have been removed.

September 6, 2005 in Art Exhibitions, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, History, Other artists by Marja-Leena 2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Art of the Hibakusha

Like so many others, we have been following the marking of the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, then Nagasaki tomorrow. This made us recall the stories once told us by two Japanese-Canadian friends now in their seventies who were living in Japan during the war. Setsuko vividly remembers the day Tokyo was bombed (not atomic). About ten years old at the time, she picked up her youngest brother, an infant, and ran and ran and ran. All her family survived but many of their neighbours and friends did not. She relived that day in nightmares for many years.

Our friend Tomio has just kindly emailed me his story again, and I quote it in its vivid entirety:

I did my best to place a mushroom cloud over Nagasaki in my panorama picture (above) which I took when we visited our homes about four years ago. Nagasaki is 80 km away from my old home in a countryside. The picture was taken in the autumn of that year, and the bomb was dropped over Nagasaki when some low cumulous clouds were beginning to appear over the distant mountains or hills you can see. The rice fields were not yellow but dark green with yet-to-ripe rice plants. The skies were as blue as you can see on the picture and a few clouds beyond the hills were brightly shining.

I was 13 years old and on summer holidays from school. The countryside of Kyushu Island was calm in spite of the fact that American invasion was supposed to be imminent at a southern tip of Kyushu Island. I guess Japanese homeland forces were devastated and defenseless not requiring American forces to bomb any more. Tokyo was almost completely devastated to the ground anyway. We, Kyushu Island citizens, were expected to fight to the last man along with the military forces. Almost all the young men were fighting abroad, and old folks, their wives, and children were working in the rice fields.

On that day, I visited my friend whose parents owned a pear orchard on a hillside. After enjoying delicious pears as a guest, I started to walk downhill towards my home. I think it was about two o’clock in the afternoon. When I reached a point of clear view of the plain below, I suddenly noticed an ominous clouds towering into the sky over the distant hills. I stopped walking and watched it, and the first thing I imagined was some ominous change in the universe although I had heard on radio about a new type of bomb dropped over Hiroshima prior to that day.

The side of the mushroom shape was faintly tinted with colours (spectrum of light) and looked pretty. The mushroom shape seemed standing still (although it started to disintegrate very slowly and mix with with the surrounding shining cumulous clouds towards the late afternoon), and the atmosphere was quiet without any sound of enemy or friendly airplanes used to fly over up to about 10 days ago. Then, I resumed descending the hill with a puzzled mind toward my home.

Of all that’s been written on this subject, Mark Vallen’s post about the art of the survivors struck my artist’s soul the most.

August 6th, 2005, marks the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Japan. August 9th, marks the bombing of Nagasaki. Those who survived the blasts became known as hibakusha (Atom Bomb Survivors), and in 1974 the hibakusha began contributing artworks to an unusual project that would preserve for the world their memories of atomic fire.

Do read the rest, about Vallen’s involvement and the website Art of the Hibakusha, that he has upgraded to commemorate the first… and hopefully last atomic war. The paintings comprising this exhibition are sober reminders of the reality of atomic warfare, created by people who actually lived through an atomic holocaust.

Also don’t miss reading about the amazing and powerful Hiroshima Panels, comparable to Picasso’s Guernica. View them at this online gallery.

Melting Hand by Takakura Nobuko

August 8, 2005 in History, Other artists by Marja-Leena 3 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Art in Nature

Doesn’t this scene look very magical and surreal, with the strange almost man-made looking sculptural forms scattered about in the landscape?

Photo from the World Conservation Union (IUCN), via BBC

It is the desert floor of Wadi al-Hitan, or Whale Valley, south of Cairo, littered with fossils of the last whales known to have legs. The remains reveal the transition of whales from land-based to the ocean-going mammals we know today. It is one of eight areas of natural beauty that have been put on the World Heritage list by Unesco (do look at them all).

National Geographic also reports on this, stating that “Egypt’s Wadi Al-Hitan (“whale valley”) reveals one of the iconic transitions in the record of life”. Have a look at this photo of a whale, and another at UNESCO World Heritage Centre where you can also visit all the sites around the world on their list. Check out how many are from your country.

July 20, 2005 in Culture, History, Photography, Rock Art & Archaeology by Marja-Leena 2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Becoming Human

Are you a bookmarker like me? When I come across some interesting web sites that I don’t have time to read in depth at that moment, I’ll save it into a temp folder. The list gets rather long, so now and then I go through a few of them. Some get saved into properly named folders, some discarded, and some are great to share, like this one – Becoming Human: Paleoanthropology, Evolution and Human Origins. It’s a very well done interactive flash documentary that tells the story of our origins. There is even a section on Culture about our ancestors’ great creativity, their rock paintings, engravings and sculpture.

So get a cup of tea, a comfortable chair, turn up the volume and enjoy! (or bookmark it for future reading, like me!) And sorry, I don’t remember where I found it but thanks to whomever shared it, perhaps another bookmarker.

February 23, 2005 in Anthropology, History, Rock Art & Archaeology by Marja-Leena 3 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

about Baiki

I recently received a copy of BAIKI: the North American SAMI Journal, which ‘is a major English-language source of information about Sami arts, literature, history, spirituality, and environmental concerns. It also covers news of North American Sami community events. “BAIKI” [bah-h’kee] is the nomadic reindeer-herding society’s word for cultural identity and survival, ”the home that lives in the heart. […] Today the Sami are incorporating new technologies into the revival of their language [and culture], and they are in the forefront of the worldwide post-colonial Indigenous renaissance. Moreover, having their own parliaments in Norway, Sweden and Finland, the Sami relationship with their former colonizers is improving as well.’

There is a huge amount of fascinating information in the magazine and online. I’m surprised, for example, to learn that: ‘At least 30,000 people of Sami ancestry live in North America. Some are the descendants of Sami people who emigrated to the United States and Canada as Norwegians, Swedes, and Finns and some are the descendants of “Lapp” herders from the Alaska Reindeer Project who introduced reindeer husbandry to the Inupiaq and Yup’ik peoples’. These latter people are featured in a travelling exhibit The Sami Reindeer People of Alaska. I’m going to see this when it comes to Seattle next year.

Faith Fjeld is the founding editor and publisher based in Anchorage, Alaska, and has done an incredible and invaluable job in promoting the Sami cultural revival with this beautiful biannual publication begun in 1991 and now in its 25th issue. The current issue’s theme is “Sami Identity in Art, Film, Music and Storytelling” with examples of works by many ami artists.

I’m excited by the wonderful abundance of inspiring material that has opened up for me. As regular readers may know, I have been slowly learning and writing about the Sami or Saami (incorrectly called Lapps or Laplanders) branch of the Finno-Ugric family, the Indigenous People of the Nordic and Northeast Russian Arctic regions called Sapmi (incorrectly called Lapland).

I’ve written about their siida and the Skabmagovat film festival (one is being planned in Alaska in 2005), and about some of their music and their sacred stones or seidas.

Further Links:
Lands of the Sami
Oktavuohta digital magazine of Sami culture
Samediggi – the Sami Parliament in Finland and in Sweden
The Norwegian Sami parliament link does not seem to work, but there is this on the Sami of Norway

December 12, 2004 in Culture, Ethnicity, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, History by Marja-Leena 3 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Finland’s Independence Day

Finland is celebrating its 87th Independence Day (Itsenäisyys Päivä) today, December 6th. Though I’m a proud Canadian, I’m also proud of my birth country.

Finland was part of the Swedish realm for some 600 years up to 1809 and then attached to the Russian empire for just over a century. The Grand Duchy of Finland, as part of the Russian Empire enjoyed extensive autonomy. Gradually Finnish nationalism grew and in 1906 “Finland acquires its own national parliament, elected by equal and universal suffrage, a development that makes Finnish women the first in the world to be granted full national political rights, that is to say suffrage and eligibility to stand for election to their national Parliament.” Shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, Finland declared Independence.

If you’d like to learn more about Finland, Virtual Finland* is the excellent main portal with very good history pages. Wikipedia is good too.

Later: On a side note, this just came in on BBC: Finland is rated the best in education in math and reading. Canada is third.

* The Virtual Finland site no longer exists so link has been removed.

December 6, 2004 in Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, History by Marja-Leena Comments Off on Finland’s Independence Day

by Marja-Leena

Ararat by Egoyan

Our Saturday Night at the Movies was spent comfortably at home with a DVD of Atom Egoyan’s Ararat. Yes, I know it’s already two years old, it took us this long to get around to it. Wow, what a powerful film this is!

Atom Egoyan is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker of Armenian descent. This film is his most personal because it’s about his own people and their history, especially the genocide of Armenians in Turkey in 1915, never acknowledged by Turkey.

“As a Canadian-Armenian filmmaker,” says Atom Egoyan,” I had always contemplated a film about the unique history of the Armenian people. While it was tempting to consider an adaptation of one of several books, I realized it was crucial for me to root the film in the present day. In this way, I could trace the effects of this historic event on the present generation. My goal was to make a film that would allow the viewer to experience the reality of horror in a spiritual sense, and not just present the obvious results of material and physical loss.”

It is a complex many-layered story, as Egoyan’s films are, but fortunately we spent a little time researching it beforehand, especially regarding Armenia. This considerably aided our understanding and enjoyment. One of the interesting sub-plots in the film concerned Armenian artist Arshile Gorky, whose work I knew only a little, and felt compelled to learn more about later. Here is his charcoal drawing of his mother, that is similar to the paintings of her shown in the movie:

from Art Institute of Chicago collection

Ararat was filmed in Toronto and the Drumheller area of Alberta, with some footage of old churches, church art, and Mount Ararat from Turkey. The leading actors, Egoyan’s wife Arsinee Khanjian and Charles Aznavour, are Armenian. Lovely opera singer, Canadian-Armenian Isabel Bayrakdarian sang some of the hauntingly beautiful background music.

There is so much more, so if you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend it highly, especially on DVD, as it’s great in providing a lot of background to the film.

November 30, 2004 in Films, History by Marja-Leena 10 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

The Museum Called Canada

Imagine this – an interesting website with a virtual tour about a book The Museum Called Canada. The “tour guides” are “a renowned academic and author with a documented love for unconventional histories” Charlotte Gray and “museum curator” is the publisher of Toronto’s Otherwise Edition’s Sara Angel.

The story behind this unusual book and virtual tour is on The Globe & Mail. Here’s an excerpt:

“Published by Random House Canada, The Museum Called Canada is certainly one of the best-looking books produced in the country’s publishing history. […] The cover is mocked up to be an archive box from a museum, some front pages showing the entranceway to a museum, a coat-check room and the elevator. The 25 “rooms” (that is, chapters) are organized thematically, not chronologically, and cover everything from Canada’s ice age to its position in the modern global village.”

October 13, 2004 in Books, History by Marja-Leena Comments Off on The Museum Called Canada

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Finnish libraries

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blogs and shows

Art of the Hibakusha

Art in Nature

Becoming Human

about Baiki

Finland’s Independence Day

Ararat by Egoyan

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