Härmä / Hoar
Finland
2024
Utu-Tuuli Jussila’s grandmother lived to the age of 94 (1925-2019). She wished to live the last years of her life alone in the countryside, in Ylihärmä (Finland), in her house located miles from the nearest town.
Suffering from early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, she imagined that people would break into her yard or basement. To ensure that these people would be identified, a motion-detection camera was installed. The surveillance footage makes up the core material for this series. It shows the artist’s grandmother doing her daily, repetitive chores and yard work in the twilight of her life. The woman, who keeps busy in the garden, gradually disappears, giving way to another kind of presence. In the end, rather than potential intruders, the camera ended up watching the artist’s grandmother.
With the support of the Finnish Institute in France
Portfolio
About the artist
Born in 1985, Utu-Tuuli Jussila (they) is a photographer and a doctoral researcher in gender studies based in Helsinki, Finland. Their practice revolves mainly around collected images and collaborative methods, more than the handling of their own camera. Since 2014, their work has been the subject of several exhibitions in Finland and abroad. They also go by the name Jussi Lautu.