Seija Ulkuniemi’s work tells intimately of an encounter between a Lappish woman suffering from Alzheimer’s and her daughter who visits her in a nursing home.

Ulkuniemi tries to describe with few photos how the world of a person living in a nursing home is limited to a small space, often only to a single room. In the room there are some personally meaningful things which help the patient to remember and create a sense of her own space. Private and public space expands and becomes warmer when a caring daughter comes to visit her mother. The encounter, the touching and exchange of gazes, build bridges both between the people and the past and present that they share. To lose one’s memory does not prevent but maybe even helps one to live for the moment. Also the daughter is present: you can sense the feeling of loving and caring.

An essential part of the exhibition is the soundscape: the daughter, Suvi Ahtiainen, reads parts of the diaries she has written while visiting her mother.

Ulkuniemi’s work is very topical in that Alzheimer’s is familiar to most of us either personally or indirectly.

“We know people who have it, or those who take care of people suffering from dementia. I also want those unfamiliar with this disease get to know it more deeply”, Ulkuniemi notes.

She hopes that the photos will encourage people to visit their loved ones living in nursing homes, or to take part in various kinds of activities that are organized to offer voluntary friendship to people without relatives living close to them.

The daughter in the photos has given permission to show the work publicly and to publish both her photos and the photos of her mother.

The Lapland Regional Fund of Finnish Cultural Foundation has given financial support to the exhibition.

Seija Ulkuniemi works at the Faculty of Education as university lecturer in art education.

The exhibition is open in the exhibition hall of Muurola library till November 29 (street address Koulukaari 10, Rovaniemi). Opening hours: Monday and Thursday from 12 (noon) to 7 pm. Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday from 10 am to 4 pm.

More information:
Seija Ulkuniemi
Tel. + 358 40 484 4143
seija.ulkuniemi (at) ulapland.fi