THE RESIDENT FISH HAS MOVED AWAY – Marja Söderlund

From the perspective of places and objects, a human lifespan is just a brief visit, leaving behind traces that bear witness to what once was.

I have photographed the images for this exhibition in the Ahlaisten archipelago in Pori, on an old fishing farm that once served as both the home and workplace of my relatives. Life on the island has always been dictated by natural forces: the surrounding sea, the winds, the ice, the ebb and flow of water, and the movement of fish.

Once fundamental and essential, the professions of fishermen and small-scale farmers have changed drastically over time—some have even disappeared. The objects tied to this way of life, now without their users and context, become silent secrets—strange creatures in their own right, yet inherently valuable. A fishing net weight is like a birch bark envelope, enclosing within it the stone that repeats endlessly in the landscape. The cork float of a net bears a hole, just like the bread that fishing once brought to the table.

Tools function as intermediaries and enablers, allowing the transformation of one thing into another. In the act of photographing, old objects take on a dual role as both instruments and active participants. A constructed image can highlight phenomena and the qualities of objects, revealing new meanings by placing them in unexpected relationships.

As I handle these objects during the photography process, searching for interpretations, I feel a connection to their makers and users through the worn surfaces shaped by time and use. In this way, old objects serve as both vehicles and subjects of imagination, as I capture them in a place that is deeply meaningful to me—a space where multiple layers of time exist simultaneously.

My photographs feature groupings of objects, items juxtaposed with their surroundings or with each other, as well as series and image pairs that echo natural phenomena. I have also observed weather conditions and created photo collages.

For a long time, my artistic work has revolved around the experience and interpretation of place and time. Seriality, associations, potential connections between things, and simultaneity are crucial elements in my works.

In this exhibition, I accompany the photographs with small explanatory texts as well as old dialect words I have heard used. These words, too, tell a story of a past way of life. The word “asuntokala,” which appears in the exhibition title, refers—according to the Dictionary of Finnish Dialects—to a fish that remains in the same waters.

Thank you to the generations before us.

Thank you to the Arts Promotion Centre Finland for supporting this work.

Thank you to the Institute for the Languages of Finland’s Finnish Dialect Archive and Ulriikka Puura.

Translated with ChatGPT and Copilot