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Susanna Majuri
October, 2012
“Imagination is my home, and in my dreams I often return to my childhood’s home. The red house in my photograph Talo perhaps partly represents a wish for a particular family or companion. The girl in this image studies the home from above and extends her hands: home is literally held in her arms. I suspect she is returning – as we sometimes return in dreams – to a memory. The image of course could also be interpreted differently: The girl is looking at the house freely, at a distance and from the sky. Nothing holds her any longer – perhaps now she can become herself.
There are other intimations of autobiography in my work: like pheasant birds from the forest where I played as a child, or a line from the Finnish poet Mirkka Rekola: ‘There is fire in the water’.
Images can be seen as a place for holding different emotions, and I conceal my dreams and desires in images. Water is in a sense my paint, and landscapes a place where feelings can be revealed while still remaining hidden. My hope is that you might recognize these photographed places in your own imagination. Perhaps some of the mysteries I share in my work will become your own secrets, as my wish is to help you to dream – to visit places where my protagonists sing tunes of joy and yearning. In the words of Tua Forsström: ‘I said it was a dream, because I wanted to stay’.”
– Susanna Majuri