The Crater Lake Project
2017 – 2019 (On going)
Video stills from the video installation
The Crater Lake Project
Installation (video, sound, sculpture)
Unfold group exhibition
Finnish Museum of Photograpy
2020
People often feel like they are watching nature from the outside, as though they are observing, molding or controlling it.
I believe that the photograph in particular has a dangerous capability to mold and limit the Western perception of nature.
Humans are an inseparable part of nature. Nature is an entity
that contains numerous phenomena still unknown to science.
In my work, I examine how these unknown phenomena
affect our perception of nature and how art can make this
unknown reality visible.
I have filmed crater lakes in Finland, Estonia and Oregon USA.
These lakes have been linked to various supernatural phenomena
on-going scientific research and folklore regarding their formation. Respecting the infinite
diversity of nature, its unexplainable phenomena and structures, as well as this folklore is at the heart of my work.
Fact and fiction, scientific, artistic and the personal
intertwine in The Crater Lake Project.
Video of Paasvesi crater lake
The video from installation Entities of light (2017) is the origin and the main theme of The Crater Lake Project.
The installation is inspired by a light phenomenon called Paasveen piru (the devil of lake Paasvesi) that is indefinitely an unexplained light phenomenom and it’s been observed hundreds of years by locals around the lake. The devil is a bright light sphere hovering above the waters of the lake moving and changing it’s directions rapidly. According to one opinion the phenomenom might be associated with the way the round shaped lake was originated: by a meteor strike. My experience of witnessing the devil with my own eyes and filming video material of it made me become curious and interested in other crater lakes, other unexplained natural phenomena, folk tales and scientific studies connected to them.
Entities of Light
A two channel video installation
2017
Brinkkalan Galleria, Turku FIN
Exhibition documentation from private exhibition with visual artists Lilli Haapala, Outimaija Hakala and Anni Saijonkivi at Brinkkala Gallery, Turku.
TRACING METEORITES
Charcoal on paper
size varies
2018
At Keurusselkä crater lake I located a remote shore where certain rocks could be found which have traces from the crater impact on their surfaces. The pressure from the impact caused these marks on the rock surfaces which I traced onto a paper with charcoal. Through the gesture of rubbing the paper with my hand on these rocks I could become closer physically with the soil and the historical catastrophe of the impact within the soil. Somehow this natural phenomena became to feel more personal for me. The charcoal traces which are imprinted on the paper are in a way images of the meteor strike that happened millions of years ago.
SUMMASJÄRVI 25.7.2018 I-III
Silk screenprint
45 x 68 cm
Sushibar + Wine, Helsinki, 2020
The silk screen prints are part of the series of works in The Crater Lake Project. The prints are from photographs taken from the shore of the Summasjärvicrater from the summer of 2018. According to the researchers, there is a hitherto
unknown anomaly in the conductivity of the water near the crater. For this reason, I cropped and scaled the photos I took of the water to larger images for my silk screen prints. They are images of the combination of the state of water and light: abstract forms that look like microscopic cells.
SÄÄKSJÄRVI/ THE SHAPE OF WATER
Pigment transfer collage on canvas
50 x 50 cm, 60 x 60 cm
2021 (on going)
A series of collage pigment transfer pieces on canvas
from The Crater Lake Project (2017-) body of works.
The Underlying
Porvoo Art Hall2024
2023, STARDUST PUZZLE. Pigment print (a digital scan of a chemigram)
2023, Constellations Obscure I-II. Photogram.
2022–24, The Altar. Soil- and forest material chromatograph installation.
2017–2024,The Root: Devil of lake Paasvesi. Pigment print.
2023, Soil Experiments. Pigment print. Microscope photograph of a meteorite thin section.
Photogram, digital scan.
Sirja Moberg, 2023, A Childhood dream – Metorites. Video. Sound by Juho Hämäläinen, (11 min 10 sec).
2023, Alinen, Traces of the Underlying. Mixed media installation.
2022,Söderfjärden series. Pigment print.
2023, Lumparn: Latent waves. Pigment print.
2021, Karikkoselkä: A Blanket of Stars. Pigment print.
2021–2023, Sääksjärvi: The Shape of Water & Soil Experiments. Pigment transfer on canvas.
2023, Saarijärvi: Siphonophycus I-II. Lumen print, Pigment print (a digital scan of a Lumen print)
The Underlying
Solo exhibition
Porvoon Taidehalli (Porvoo Art Hall), Porvoo FIN
16.2.–24.3.2024
Sirja Moberg’s exhibition ”The Underlying” unfolds in Porvoo Art Hall in ritualistic formations. The photo and video artworks explore the invisible, the mystical, and the diverse nature through soil, the lifecycle, plant life, and the hidden deep time in landscapes. The exhibition also presents soil chromatographies, pigment transfer works, as well as object and sculpture installations. The exhibition offers pers pectives on reflections over our relationship with nature through experimental photographic methods.
Soil is a unifying factor in Moberg’s work, which essentially includes fieldwork trips to nature reserves’ forests, meteorite craters, and the fells of Sápmi nature. From these locations, she has gathered materials an experiences for her works. With the works exhibited at the Porvoo Art Hall, Moberg aims to represent the deep time crystallized in meteorites and trace fossil stones from Kilpisjärvi: How do these extremely slow changes in cosmic and geological time compare to the brief span of human life?
In addition to directing her camera towards these earthy elements, as seen in the video work ”Kuonjarjokka” and in the video made with a microscope, ”A Childhood Dream – Meteorites”, Moberg uses sand, stones and plants as materials in the creation of analog photographs. The exhibition also showcases an alternativ way of utilizing soil chromatography, originally developed for agriculture. Chromatographies that make use of soil and forest materials along with photo chemicals allow the viewer to, as it were, look into the earth and reflect on the vitality that originates from it.
”The connection to nature and its mysteries is at the core of my artistic practise. I am particularly puzzle by how photography acts as a revealer, concealer, and delimiter of these aspects, as well as of reality itself. Experimental photographic processes and their combination with other artistic techniques are the driving
force that moves my work forward,” Moberg explains. The artist has also drawn inspiration from the ancient Finnish belief that the underworld was the night side of all existence. Therefore, ”The Underlying” exhibition looks beneath the surface of reality to things that do not appear to the naked eye.
© Sirja Moberg 2024