YOMIGÆRI [ 2021 ]
for Design March Reykjavík
with Jarkko Kinnunen
よみがえる 甦る [yomigaeri]
1〈生き返る〉 be brought (back) to life [to one’s senses]; revive; rise from the dead; spring to life again
2〈元に戻る〉come back 記憶をよみがえらせるrecall [get back] one’s memories
a collaboration between Marko Svart and ceramist Jarkko Kinnunen, inspired by the Finnish national epic Kalevala.
Yomigæri is about giving new life to waste materials, reviving forgotten memories of our ancestors, and contemporizing bygone techniques in ceramics and fabric dyeing.
Conceptually, the exhibition explores themes of death and resurrection through the Finnish mythology of Tuonela, the land of the Dead.
Tuonen joki (The river of tuonela) is said to be filled with rusty needles and weapons, which gave Svart & Kinnunen the inspiration to use rust and iron as the main anchor throughout the various artworks and experiments.
Kiputyttö jewelry made from Icelandic clay, inspired by the goddess of pain and illness from Finnish folklore.
The Kiputyttö series is a literal manifestation of the “Integration phase” of Svart’s artistic method – pain manifested through material catharsis
In traditional runic folklore, Kiputyttö sits atop the Pain Mountain, grinding a stone pierced with nine holes. Healers would plead with her to extract excruciating pain from a human body and trap it inside the rock.
Being inanimate, the earth can hold immense suffering without being broken by it.
“The stone does not cry out in pain.”
Natural clay dug straight from the Icelandic earth was chosen for its primitive simplicity and its high iron content, which bleeds a vibrant, red hue when fired.
By pulling this raw matter from the ground and shaping it by hand, Svart mirrors the ancient ritual: digging out the internal friction, forcing it into the clay, and hardening it into an object that cannot feel.
Fabric dyeing & clothing
Unbleached raw cotton and linen, dyed completely with rust and waste materials by Kinnunen, was turned by Svart into a series of clothing inspired by “Euran Emäntä”, one of the most famous archaeological discoveries from Finland’s Late Iron Age.
The Mistress of Eura was buried with an exceptionally rich assortment of bronze jewelry and tools. As the bronze corroded over centuries, the resulting copper salts acted as a natural preservative, miraculously saving the organic textile fragments from decaying.
Thanks to these preserved scraps, researchers achieved the first-ever complete reconstruction of an ancient Finnish costume.
Honoring the silhouette of the ancient burial attire, Svart reimagined the traditional tunic, apron, and cloak into modernized versions.
These pieces highlight a beautiful parallel between ancient survival and modern eco-consciousness. By using actual waste materials, we mirror the resourcefulness of the Viking Age, where nothing was thrown away. Iron sludges, old nails, and scrap metal mixed with natural tannins can turn organic fabrics into deeply textured, earthy garments without a single drop of synthetic chemicals.
