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| From Rauma Blog |
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| From Rauma Blog |
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| From Rauma Blog |
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| From Rauma Blog |
Show in San Francisco
While in Rauma I was contacted by the MCCLA in San Francisco to contribute to the "Today" exhibition. The curator asked each artist to write the word 'today' in any way and in any language. I saw it as a clear connection between the work I have been doing in Rauma and chose a variant of the Rauma dialect word for 'today'.
The Rauma dialect is often described by other Finns as “peculiar” or “exotic”. It has gained a special reputation as being unique among the other southwestern dialects and many locals even consider it a separate language. Seafaring has been for centuries one of the most important sources of income and of livelihood in Rauma. In the past local sailors and mariners spent not days but consecutive months or sometimes years offshore and overseas. As a consequence, the Rauma dialect is said to include plenty of words with English, Dutch, Swedish, German, and Russian origin. Although the dialect has standardized, many distinctive features such as a drastic shortening of words and a fast syncopation can be found everywhere in Rauma. According to one expert, in the old Rauma dialect, people pronounced (and still do, in fact) the word ‘today’-‘tänään’ as tänäpä or even tänäp. This dialect, sometimes even referred to as a language, is being actively preserved in Rauma and some smaller towns outside of Rauma. Its origins come from the writings of H.J. Nortamo, who wrote extensively in the dialect about all things maritime.
The word is written in water-born pigment with water from the Baltic Sea on paper from the paper factory in Rauma, and is preserved (like the language) using 2 layers of boat varnish and 1 coat of fiberglass resin, also for boats. I also included a Band-Aid sticker from a project the curator and I did together at the Pomona Swap Meet car show. I thought it was funny how much effort people would put into their cars to preserve the original parts.
Tänäpä is a variable edition of three, numbered and signed on the back.
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| From Rauma Blog |
