Marjo Hyvärinen. Heart Roots, 2020

The Helsinki based artist Marjo Hyvärinen is working in the RaumArs Art Residency during July 2020. The Finnish Visual Arts day (Suomen kuvataiteen päivä) on the 10th of July will be celebrated by a Group Exhibition by the Sewing Council including 7 other artists. The exhibition will be held for the whole weekend and includes an Art workshop for children on both Saturday and Sunday.

A group of mothers that were brought together by their artistic orientation and children of the same age got to know each other at day-care centre. They decided to get together one evening in December 2009. The evening resulted in an idea of a Sewing Circle that could function as a platform for various activities.

The Councils, or joint gatherings, take place in turns in one of the member’s homes. The custom is that everyone brings something to eat for a combined brunch/meal as well as a handicraft to work with. As time went by, “Sewing Circle” was changed to the “Sewing Council” as it became clear that all the strong and distinctive ladies had seemingly good advice on a number of issues such as handicrafts, bringing up the kids, relationships, house renovations or other big issues in life.The friendship and feeling of a heartfelt connection between the Councillors has kept the Council alive through out various changes of life for 11 years.

At times women have gathered around the table of the Council for only a moment, whereas others have stayed on from the beginning.The accumulation of human encounters have stayed within the spirit of the Council. The women who have found their way to this community are all a part of a bigger web of rendezvous. One could sit down at the table with someone who becomes a friend for a lifetime. The energy of the Sewing Council has a magnetic field that attracts likeminded people from the roots of encounters.

We decided to work on the exhibition with a common theme, without defining the approach as definite. The heart as a symbol had been used in many of the Councils members’ artworks previously, which we found as a funny coincidence. The common intention of the Sewing Council could easily be described as heartfelt, which therefore inspired us to choose the title “The Roots of the Hearts” (“Sydänjuuret”) for the exhibition.

Many of the Councillors have been working independently in the field of arts. Their gathering at the Sepän talo is the first common exhibition of the Council. (Käännös Johanna Blom)

Hyvärinen tells: "Visits to Old Rauma have made an indelible impression on me. I have always been fascinated by history and the layers of time. Old houses and streets of Rauma exhale and sigh. The cobblestones still drum the lungs of the horse's hooves, the corner boards of the houses squeal the voices of the children, the windows flash past faces, the continuum of life, generations. The length and shortness of human life is subtle. The time is relative. Life is like a lace weave, each with its own tissue.

The roots of the human flow, the mycelium of hearts and encounters, are sanded layered overlapping each other. Some of the relationships remain, some create something new, some save, heal, and some just disappear as suddenly as they have come. Behind every face is someone’s “I”.

All the things I have sensed in the atmosphere of Old Rauma, I brought to my pictures. I have kept my working technique as simple as possible, so I've been using organic and decomposable materials. The main materials are coffee, red wine and charcoal. "