So now we are in Finland. We took the 45 minute prop-plane flight from Stockholm to Turku and, thanks to a clear day, could see a bit of the famous Finnish Archipelago on the way. Supposedly 20,000 islands stretch almost due west of Turku into the Baltic Sea. We hope to tour them by boat for a bit either today or tomorrow.
We are here to visit with our friends Shawn Decker and Alice George. Shawn has been here for almost two weeks working with his Finnish artist-collaborator Jan Erik Andersson. As part of the Summer-long European Center of Culture 2011, Turku has commissioned the construction of four special saunas. Shawn and Jan Erik have created "The Sounding Dome Sauna" in a public park, adjacent to a public pool. The fiberglass structure is shaped like an onion--- a traditional sauna inside is enhanced by Shawn's sound installation in which the sound created responds to temperature and team via various sensors. It opened to the public yesterday and we have not visited it yet.
Yesterday, we drove to the island of Russailo where the "Sauna Obscura" resides. The structure is a fairly traditional looking Finnish sauna house EXCEPT that you have to row out to its location, afloat in the Baltic Sea. Inside, it has two lenses that give a reverse reflection. This picture shows the beach and tree line of the nearby shore reflected upside down below Cathy and Alice's legs. After steaming ourselves to near-intolerance, we then went outside and dove into the icey Baltic sea.
We then took a walk along a path where we saw many art nouveau seaside homes, such as:
Last evening, we went to a dinner party at Jan Erik's house. The "Leaf House" was conceived and designed by Jan Erik and is truly remarkable. He began designing it in 1999- was not able to convince the building authorities to go ahead with the project until 2006 and then it took 4 years to build--- off and on construction. The footprint is of a leaf. The best way to invasion it is to go to his website: www.andessonart.com and click on the Leaf House link. The few pictures here do not do it justice. There are many works of contributing artists woven into the design and decoration of the house including a Shawn Decker sound installation in the "bridge" to the master bedroom. The crown (both literally and figuratively is the "blue bell" on the third floor, a small glass solarium that looks out over Turku harbor and Turku castle.
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Bye.
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Location:Yliopistonkatu,Turku,Finland
