Dide Siemmond - Christmas time in Finland

Hello again,

I'm nearing the end of my restful residency in Kokkola. It's been a wonderful and generous experience, so I really am thankful for those who made it possible, such as Stina and Meri :-)

Though we mainly stayed in Kokkola the whole time, we did have a trip to Helsinki and the snow covered sand dunes and splitting ice around Karhi, thanks to Clas-Olav and his wife Tarja. I also went ice hole swimming after sweating it out in the sauna with Clasu and Tarja, which was so invigorating! I would highly recommend, at least once. I met Clasu, after he photographed me when I was interviewed for one of the Finnish newspapers. He's great at what he does! I actually, unexpectantly, got quite a lot of press coverage for a couple of different newspapers when I was here, so thank to Stina, Jessica and Anni for making that happen! It was lovely to see people interested in what I do, and very rewarding :-)

Here are some photos of my festive stay, with some lovely colours!

Take care,
Dide

Dide Siemmond - Snow coral

Hi,

I've just been experimenting with overlaying photos of coral and snow, as diseased bleached coral look like underwater snowscapes to me and I thought it might be an effective way of bringing this to the fore in hopefully inciting change.

:-)

Dide Siemmond - Hello Kokkola

Hello Kokkola,

We've been here for 2 weeks now and are loving it: the cosy Christmas creativity, the crisp snow air and the lazy fantastical slumber of darkness...

I've mainly been experimenting with melting metal for sculptures and paintings as a bit of side fun. The paintings revolve around ideas concerning freezes, such as brain freezes and freezing moments in time, to address our approach to mental health. I might compose music too, but not sure. Most of my exploring has been sculptural, and I've written some poems too. Here's one like a beetle with a poem inspired by it and Finnish life to go with it. It evolves both a Finnish and Asian tradition. As well as this, I had an idea to create a platform called #creatorsofchange, which I launched last week.

So far I am being inspired by Finnish culture and history as interpreted by me, Arto Passilinna, Väinö Linna, the Moomins. We've been watching Finnish films and reading Finnish books, and I've seen the St Lucia celebrations and sung Finnish Christmas songs in the church - all new to me :-) We've done everything around the town, from the sea, to museums, eating Finnish fare and even archery, so only a wood sauna left to do, and maybe some ice-skating if it gets cold enough. Here are some photos of Kokkola in the snow :-) Hoping for more snow, fingers crossed!

Thank you,
Dide
www.didesiemmond.com