ÄIDIT, ISOÄIDIT, ISOISOÄIDIT (Mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers)
Looping audio 5’ 56” with photographs
commissioned by the Finnish American Folk School for Juhannus 2022 and installed at Finlandia University Gallery (Hancock MI) summer 2022
“A testament to the lives and work of the multitude of women who left home, land, and family to live in the Keweenaw. In the rocking chairs in the corners, at the stoves and at laundry lines - with rug beaters in their hands - they were as integral a part of Copper Country as the miners. This piece is for them: those with children and those without, whatever tongue they called their own.”
Sourced sound similar in cadence, timbre, frequency to that of a record scratch is combined with field recordings re-recorded in the resonance of derelict structures of the Keweenaw’s past copper industry. Stereo headphone audio is installed within historic photographs of women from the Copper Country.
Field recordings from the Alan Lomax collection (Library of Congress):
Photos collected from descendants of women of the Keweenaw and sourced from the Finlandia University archives
Composition, field recording, voice, viola/ Sara Pajunen
Mixed by Robert Soma-Lewis at Ambient Works
Thank you to Phyllis Frendendall, Clare Zuraw, Joanna Chop, Carrie Flaspohler, and Tom Wright everyone who sent in photos of their ancestors.
