Today was the first time I took the camera with me, although I was not sure if I would have the possibility to stop and use it other than for snapshots. Luckily I did. While the group of elderly Spanish couples strolled on the Cofete beach or on the shore near the Puertito de La Cruz or Punta de Jandia, I could pose for the camera with some of the shrubs. The beautiful cacti-looking plants, Cardón de Jandia, whose preservation is one of the main reasons for the Jandia peninsula being a natural park, were only growing on the northern slopes, far from any viewpoints or parking lots. But I am happy with these small attempts, anyway. Unfortunately I do not know the names of the spiky grey shrubs that I sat with, and that grow everywhere in the desert around here, nor of the succulent type of shrub that is also common. (See images below) Information on the web is hard to find, but something, here. I edited all three attempts into short videos of a little more than seven minutes each, although the last one was a little too close, not very interesting as an image. Actually only the first one, from Cofete beach, is ok, I think. I tried to upload small files onto the Research Catalogue, but the internet connection is not very stable, so it might be impossible. At some point they will be available here. Some images of the shrubs, to give an idea:
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

This afternoon, three o’clock, at sunset, I went to visit the trees in Kaivopuisto Park for one last time. The reason for ending this year so early, is a holiday trip which will bring me back only after New Year. My visits have not been that regular, anyway, sometimes only once a week, sometimes twice or three times. And there have been breaks for travels. I have been sitting on and with a group of elm trees up on the hill, with a view overlooking Harakka Island, Uunisaari and the strait Uuninsuu between them. And I have also sat on the stub of an alder on the other side of the park.
These visits to the trees in Helsinki are documented as video stills on the Research Catalogue, on a separate page, here.  (Scroll down the page for the last images). Yesterday I did my last visits to the trees in Stockholm as well, and they are documented in a similar manner in the same exposition, on another page, here. The actual material recorded of all these visits is moving images, videos, and they will be edited into rough time-lapse videos later. Now I am more concetned with the shock of how quickly time passes; one year is not that long, really.
Next year I will spend more time in Stockholm, and will probably not choose any trees to visit in Helsinki. There are my house plants to take care of, however, both at home and in my studio on Harakka Island and they are the plants I am performing with daily. I am not posing for camera with them (except the ivy, once), nor thinking of our living together that much, unless they get ill or seem to suffer somehow. They are my “house gnomes”, “hustomtar” in Swedish or “kotitonttuja” in Finnish; they demand that I return home to take care of their basic needs. But they seem to thrive without my presence, too. I probably give them too much water, sometimes…
 

In the wake of independence day celebrations, sitting in the snowy Park, I thought of how much harder the winter mornings must have been without our modern comforts. Independent or dependent, well. I remember Karen Finley giving a public performance lecture at Theatre Academy many years ago and speaking of her work within the dependent cinema, because that is what the so-called independent cinema of course is, dependent on all kinds of factors, like the enthusiasm of its makers. And the same things goes for many fields. This came to mind because of the 100 years independence festivities yesterday. There is much to celebrate in our 100 years of independence, including the right to vote for women etc. but that does not mean we cannot acknowledge our total dependence of so many things, among them the trees. The Swedish language local newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet had a series of articles on the major factors in the shaping of Finland and the first, the absolutely most important one, they suggested was the forest!
 
On Friday the world had changed again, rain, rain, drizzle and rain again. Around 1 pm when I went out the rain had stopped for a while but the wind was strong. Using a rock in a plastic bag as a weight kept the tripod standing, but the wind shook the camera and made it slide to the left, a funny panning movement. I decided to be content with that, perhaps it adds some documentary feel. And the mud! Rotting leaves and wet soil, uh. But then I remembered that these were one of my last visits to the trees. Next week I will visit them once more, or perhaps twice, but that is all. A holiday trip takes me away from Helsinki for the end of the year, so my last visits will take place at mid December.
 
What to do with the material, how to edit it, will be something to think about after Christmas. It is of course possible to make time-lapse videos with fairly short clips like twenty seconds each, or so, and also to try to synchronise the same images with and without the human figure, as I have done before. What I thought of when beginning the visits and recording my sitting with the elms from two distances, was of course creating a two-channel installation with both versions synchronised. But since there is quite a lot of material, around five minutes of each session, I could also try extra long cross fades to see what that could give…
 
The Tree calendar, my “hobby” during this year, I finished last week, with the last tree, an elder, in the same park as my “ordinary” trees. For the HCAS blog, or Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, where I have spent this year, I wrote a summary of sorts about the calendar, including a map of the trees I visited for the calendar, here. But those trees I of course visited only once each of them, unlike the elms and the alder stub that I have come to know quite well after visiting them a few times a week for a year now…
 

For the last performance in my Tree Calendar (working title) I planned to look for an elder somewhere in the eastern part of Helsinki, which I hardly know compared to the central or western areas. Searching on-line I found a mention of an elder (Sambucus nigra) in Kivikko near a dog park, and aimed to go there after visiting the trees in Kaivopuisto which I have visited regularly this year. While there, I remembered the red-berried elder (Sambucus racemosa) up on the hill, which i have passed so many times, and decided to try if I could find a suitable framing of that one. The day was rather cold, which meant that finally the snow stayed on the ground, instead of immediately turning into water. The landscape looked great, and everybody else seemed to have notices that, too. The park was full of people jogging or walking their dogs, enjoying the fresh air after days of rain. And they all wanted to follow the path next to the elder, so they ended in my video. The passers-by fire prominently in the images, because I am – for once – barely visible sitting on the low branches of the elder, partly covered by the cliff. I made an other session standing next to the elder, leaning on it lightly, just in case. Both videos, Elder in December 1 (13 min. 38 sec.) and Elder in December 2 (8 min. 59 sec.) are available on the Research Catalogue, here.
 
The Elder is the tree of the thirteenth month in the ancient lunar Tree calendar of the Celts and the dates for the month of the elder are, according to the source I have used, 24 November to 23 December. There is something fascinating in the idea of naming a calendar after trees, and you would expect there to be some connection to the time of year that tree would be particularly beautiful or useful, blooming or breaking fruit etc. But I have not really found much connections, perhaps because the climate is different here in the north. The elder is connected to death and renewal, and in that sense suitable for endings as well. Perhaps I will create another tree calendar in Stockholm next year…
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

The Month of the Reed in the Celtic Tree Calendar, at least in the one I have been following this year, ends today, on the 23rd November. Luckily I managed to pose for camera with some reeds at the Arabianranta shore in Helsinki yesterday afternoon. I remembered the reeds from walking there in the summer looking for a holly, in vain. Reeds are everywhere on the coast, of course, but around Arabianranta there are extensive areas with reeds. Funny to think of reeds as trees, although I have learned to understand that the ancient Celts obviously were very liberal in their definition of trees, if the Vine and the Ivy are considered trees as well. Reeds can be quite high, actually, and they can form a thick forest, for sure. I would not try climbing a reed, though.

The reeds at the shore looked fine but the high sea level was a problem, however, since it prevented me from walking out among the reeds. I had rubber boots, but they were not high enough. Something resembling those boots that fisher men engageing in sports fishing wear when standing in the rivers would have been good. Now I had to stand close to the shore, in front rather than among the reeds. I made three attempts, or let’s say that I performed for camera for more than a minute as a tryout only in three places. In the third place the reeds were growing in a dike or small trench, which meant that I could stand behind them on the other side and thus among them in some way. Unfortunately the afternoon was quickly turning into evening, so the third image is all blue, with the street lights colouring the snow (see above). In some manner that is a suitable image for November in Helsinki; daylight is grey and dusk comes very early. If reeds really are associated to the dead and the underworld, this way of ending the image in near darkness is perhaps rather appropriate. I edited the material into three videos, Reed in November 1, 2, and 3, all of them 8 minutes and 22 seconds, and uploaded them on the RC, here. They can be seen in context in the exposition performing with plants as well.