Threads of Land Exhibition Shown in Oulu, Finland

This exhibition brings together the works of three artists and researchers—Ruth Beer (Canada), Lola Cervantes (Finland), and Maria Huhmarniemi (Finland)—whose practices explore relationships between humans, the more-than-human world, and northern environments through distinct artistic approaches. Working with media including video, drawing and textiles, the artists engage with themes of Land, memory, mapping, ecological entanglements, cultural heritage, and multispecies coexistence. Together, the works invite viewers to reconsider Arctic Land as living, relational spaces shaped by reciprocal connections among people, materials, traditions, plants, fungi, animals, and place.

The exhibition is part of the ASAD-networks (Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design) exhibition series Parallel North: Shared Ecocultural Entanglements, which explores northern and Arctic phenomena from an ecocultural perspective. The exhibition series is curated by Professor Timo Jokela. 

The exhibition is shown in the Cafe Piha, Oulu, until 30.8.2026. The following artworks are shown in the exhibition:

Ruth Beer, Mapping the Landscape, 2026,  video (4 min. 50 sec.)

Maps are powerful cultural objects, capable of both preserving and establishing sociocultural norms. The influence of maps is only increasing, informing how we move, think, act and interact with the world around us. This artwork addresses increasing visualization of remote landscapes and communities in Canada’s North through the lens of mapping technologies from afar. It is here where mining, gas and oil extraction are shifting/shaping the landscape. Satellites and sensors as “map making” devices provide mediated information compiled for multiple purposes including representation of the Land as a resource. The artwork looks to counter this notion by introducing mapping the landscape through the physicality of weaving with its structural grid, that incorporates the use of plants and other Indigenous materials from the land, and the emergent images of Indigenous elders and the place that nurtured them.

Lola Cervantes, My hands follow the lichens, 2026, Charcoal drawing on plywood and knitted wool on wire, installation, 54x54cm

The piece is inspired by personal encounters and experiences encountering lichens; the whole composition seeks to depict an inner mindscape. The materiality of the piece aims to create a sensory connection to the lichens of the Arctic, by using drawing, knitting, charcoal and wool, to create silouettes inspired by lichen maps.  Indirectly, the piece advocates for the rights of nature to exist and remain untouched by the human hand, while at the same time, aiming for connection through touch and other human and plant entanglements.

Maria Huhmarniemi, Presence Beneath the Surface, 2026, embroidered blankets made from black wool broadcloth and plant- and mushroom-dyed wool yarns.

The work explores the presence of tradition, ancestral knowledge, and the more-than-human world beneath the visible surface. Its net-like motif is based on the traditional ruusuverkko ("rose net"), one of the most common ornamental patterns in Finnish folk heritage. The pattern symbolises the interconnectedness of generations, species, and the living environment, revealing relationships that continue to shape the present even when they remain unseen.