Tuesday – My last day in Finland
We turned a different way out of the road this time, and Edwina took me to the side of Riihimaki that i had not been to yet; i am amazed how far this town spans. We were heading towards the Glass Factory and Museum, the trade that Riihimaki is, or at least was best known for. First we stopped off at Gary and Eeva’s house, they live in one of the original houses built for the glass factory workers and this whole district was idyllic. Autumn is coming, the air is cold and leaves are falling rapidly, but we sat outside in our coats drinking tea, eating cake and talking about the town’s relationship with art and artists. It looks to be very important that artists contribute something to the town in order to get along smoothly, often running workshops for example or sitting on a committee.
Gary, who is a photographer, took us to his studio across the road to show us some photos that he’s entering into competition. Gary is a self-employed artist, and being in his studio, talking about his schedule, funding and residencies made me want to be an artist living in Finland. I remember standing there, just feeling this urge, or determination to “be an artist“, always.
We then went on to the Glass Museum to look around the exhibition and had lunch. I felt really sad and time was precious, i had literally hours left of this non-reality that i had been enjoying so much over these past two weeks in Finland.
Edwina took me to the old glass factory, it is mostly abandoned apart from a few studios and storage. We explored the derelict buildings of the factory, peeping through broken windows, squeezing through unlocked doors, gazing at huge empty spaces and trampling through long grass to reach further hidden buildings. In England, you could never get access to such spaces, but for us, this was an abandoned adventure playground. There were fragments of glass all over the place, and old orders and equipment, and a half built canoe in one space. Light flooded in through cracks in the wood, although most spaces remained hidden from us as we did not have a torch.
I want to go back to the glass factory, in the snow, and explore it for days, making sense of the echoing rooms and forgotten fragments.
It clouded over – threatening rain, and we were tired, not just from all the running around of that day, but from the intensity of the whole Art Week…
Its time to go home.
But I have to come back, soon.
