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Glasgow-based artist Elina Bry is showing new work at the Photo North exhibition, created during a one-month residency at Kulttuurikauppila Art Centre, organised through Photo North and Street Level Photoworks.
Glasgow-based artist Elina Bry is showing new work at the Photo North exhibition, created during a one-month residency at Kulttuurikauppila Art Centre, arranged through Photo North – Northern Photographic Centre in Oulu as part of their 'Adaptation' project and in partnership with Street Level Photoworks.
Bry's work explores the relationship between humans and nature in a time of climate anxiety and climate change. During the residency she chose to 'slow travel', journeying to Northern Finland by land and sea. The resulting work, shown in the exhibition Adaptation, addresses the topic through moving image, sound and performance. Bry also aims to bring the voices and feelings of local people about nature to a wider audience. As she is half-Finnish, she has a strong connection to Finnish nature, which she has also explored in her previous work, Is The Earth Chronically Ill? (2023–2024).
The exhibition 'Adaptation – Time Is Not On Our Side: Towards Possible Futures' will be on show at Photo North from 16 October 2027 – 14th February 2027 featuring Bry's work made during this time alongside artists Matti Aikio, Erich Berger, Michèle Boulogne, Jaakko Myyri , Arttu Nieminen & Hans Pieski and Maija Tammi.
Adaptation explores and seeks both concrete and speculative solutions for the future through a dialogue between art, science and tacit local knowledge. Adaptation asks, through artistic, social, scientific, human and non-human activities, how flexibility and adaptation to inevitable change the perspectives and strategies adopted. The project aims to increase cultural and social well-being and offer new perspectives for perceiving change and identifying the future – resilience: increasing flexibility and tolerance, and innovative solutions emerging from art and culture.
Street Level are partners in the project alongside the University of Oulu's Oulanka Research Station , the University of Oulu's Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory, the KulttuuriKauppila Art Center, and the Oulu Art Museum.