Hub Feenix January 2023 artists in residence, Anja Fiedler from Berlin and Elena Botts from New York, created an inspiring and innovative art event Culinary Poetry together.
The audience had the opportunity to taste unique Michelin-level delicacies created from the treasures of the Finnish forest, for example lichen, peat and birch, and experience an experimental live multimedia performance by unknownsoundcollective.
Unforgettable and beautiful experience for all the senses!
Elena Botts, a multimedia artist from New York, was inspired by the January light in the snowy forest trails around Hub Feenix. She was especially interested in the blue light of the winter dimlight - the blue hour. On her walks she gathered material for her beautiful, experimental video and sound art.
What an interesting and inspiring adventure we had on a January Sunday afternoon at Hub Feenix! Our artist in residence Anja Fiedler prepared a Michelin-class menu from peat, lichen, birch, sap and other surprising delicacies from Finnish forest.
Random notes I had taken in the previous months started to come together and make sense at Hub Feenix. But finding a voice and proper technique for the novel was necessary. It would emerge from this place and its unique story and setting.
Less than three weeks after my arrival, I have written and edited the first chapters of a first draft of the novel. I expect this form to be the definitive one. What was to be a sombre story has become a showcase of life and light. A fine adventure of the spirit. This is the way Hub Feenix has spoken to me. Vividly and profoundly.
I have published eight books of fiction with several publishers, six novels and two novellas. Some shown here are second editions. My next novel is to be published shortly and, as I write this post, my tenth book is underway, born at Hub Feenix and inspired by my unforgettable stay there.
I arrived at Hub Feenix 10 days ago and so far have been settling in and picking up where I left off with two digital art projects. It is beautiful here - colorful, peaceful, full of friendly people.
The first project I've been focusing on is part of a series called 'Come Home,' a digital collage project about an othered person searching for belonging. I am also beginning to draft the concept for a follow-up to 'are ex - i,' a digital collage project I completed last year based on some photos, journals, dreams, and musings about life with multiple sclerosis. I did not realize there could be more to this project until I arrived here, but after a year of taking a very unconventional path to living with this disability, it turns out there are more reflections that want to come through.
Hi there, my name is Dymphie Kies and I am living in the Netherlands.
As a visual artist and a systemic coach I guide people to understand their life stories and the underlaying emotions which gave direction.
In my artworks I prefer smooth materials like textiles, cotton, silk and wool, preferably recycled so the material in itself is already telling a story.
For the next 4.5 weeks I will continue to search for and to investigate the theme “Light in Finland”, which I initiated back in 2016 at an AiR in Hauho.
People are influenced by the colors of the light, every second of the day, over and over again. This time I’ll use my camera to give even more expression to the fabric works.
If you are interested in the results of 2016 look at my blog on my website www.dymphiekies.nl
Warm greetings !!
My introduction to the lake on Day 1 with Hanna. The weather was beautiful thereafter.
I came back from a month at Hub Feenix with my heart and mind full to the brim with ideas and information. More importantly, I felt a sense of healing and belonging that had been missing. After a year of despair, something about the loving environment at "The Hub" helped me feel safe enough to process and speak about trauma and sadness with no fear. When I arrived back in the US, even though I had to immediately jump into a very packed and hectic teaching schedule, I still found time to paint the final water vaki, which was calling to me from the lake...
Something happened! The goddess paintings suddenly got BIG!!! The final water vaki from last month was twice the size of the ones done in Finland, but Ishtar is nearly two meters tall. These paintings are demanding a lot of research and experimentation, and each one has much to teach me about the spiritual practices of ancient civilizations, just like the discovery of the vaki of Finland.
Something happened! The goddess paintings suddenly got BIG!!! The final water vaki from last month was twice the size of the ones done in Finland, but Ishtar is nearly two meters tall. These paintings are demanding a lot of research and experimentation, and each one has much to teach me about the spiritual practices of ancient civilizations, just like the discovery of the vaki of Finland.
It has been a week since I've arrived at Hub Feenix. The first weekend was a hint that winter had not yet fully relinquished his grip on the land. Like the last remnants of a retreating army, heaps of snow still lay on the ground. The mornings had a chill that had your tropical writer burrow into the nest of blankets. Now already it seems a memory. The earth is quickening into life. In ever widening gyres, I find paths into the woods and fields that surround the centre. I see hares, and once, a particularly handsome cat, yesterday there were deer disporting on the football field. The writing goes slowly, but that is to be expected. Sometimes, improving the empty page is the hardest thing there is.
I have been playing flute and making recordings in different places at Hub Feenix. I have a background playing many styles of music, but in recent years I primarily improvise on the flute as a way into music composition and sound design. In general I love improvising because, not only does it help me to be more present, but its fleeting nature reminds us that status quos are not inevitable, and are changeable.
I'm also playing with the idea of proximity and distance in the spaces of Hub Feenix. I've been interested in how closeness can imply a range of colours from confinement to intimacy, kinship, love, family and solidarity. Similarly, distance can invoke aloneness, separation, to silence/the unknown, to dreaming and space. This led me to creatively questioning how I could follow these concepts in my audio work and I got interested in combining different spaces, and using natural and simulated reverb.
I had three very intense and very productive weeks at Hub Feenix in May 2024. I loved the stillness, the woods, the lake, the simplicity of a daily life being able to fully concentrate on my work, what I felt and wanted to do in every moment. I was able to dive deeply into myself and bring out the best of what I am able to perform literary. I ran and ran along the forest roads, not seeing anyone, only a deer or a hare or listening to a cuckoo bird in the distance. I ate simple and healthy food, happy to have no temptations available. I read a lot. And when it turned out there was a sewing machine available for my use, it couldn't be a more perfect stay for me. I felt healthier and richer after these three weeks, and I hope sincerely I will be able to come back - preferably every year!
My first night at Hub Feenix, and my first walk to the lake. The field was FULL of dandelions -- all dispersed just a few days later.
The Scots pine sheds its bark in shapes like puzzle pieces that litter the footpaths surrounding Hub Feenix. I had the thought that these might make for metamorphic animation sequences, and perhaps got carried away with collecting them.
My first self-made stretcher bars! (and first time to do woodworks since my DT lesson back in secondary school!)
I always paint on stretched canvas but it’s difficult (and stupid) to bring them from Hong Kong to Finland by plane. So I brought a canvas roll instead. But it felt a bit different to paint on unstretched “soft canvas piece”. Thanks to Clint, another resident artist at Hub Feenix. He suggested me doing the stretcher bars here, and gave me a step-by-step workshop: cutting the bars into desired lengths, sanding the edges, combining them into a frame with drill, and stretching the canvas over the frame.
Now I can paint on a stretched canvas!
Woodwork can be fun, when having the right teacher and tools!
What a lovely sharing session with other resident artists at Hub Feenix! I talked about my art journey starting 4 years ago, what I have been through, my signature “My Wonderland” series, and the art piece I am working on now — inspired by the nature here and Finnish nature-loving lifestyle.
The resident artists at Hub Feenix come from different countries. Their expertise ranges from painting, animation, comics, improvised music, digital art to film making! I have learned a lot from them. Hub Feenix is a centre of creativity and well-being. Many of its staff and volunteers are also artists. Thanks for listening to my sharing and your comments and encouragement!
Photo by fellow resident artist Lisa Labracio
What a lovely sharing session with other resident artists at Hub Feenix! I talked about my art journey starting 4 years ago, what I have been through, my signature “My Wonderland” series, and the art piece I am working on now — inspired by the nature here and Finnish nature-loving lifestyle.
The resident artists at Hub Feenix come from different countries. Their expertise ranges from painting, animation, comics, improvised music, digital art to film making! I have learned a lot from them. Hub Feenix is a centre of creativity and well-being. Many of its staff and volunteers are also artists. Thanks for listening to my sharing and your comments and encouragement!
during my time at the residency, I did some dyeing with local mushrooms like cortinarius and sarcodon squamosus. it was really fun to walk around in the forest surrounding the area during the end of mushroom season with my basket and picking the best looking mushrooms! i ended up with four skeins of lettlopi icelandic yarn.
while at hub feenix, i worked on some small handsewn patchwork quilts and sketched out some new ideas for the next ones! apart from the artistic work done there, i had a great time going to the sauna each week, playing games with all the volunteers, eating piparkakku, talking to the sheep and building a snow woman!!
The winter landscape in Meltola has left an impression on my subconscious mind. December’s darkness and elongated blue hours created a space for me that fostered deep-set introspection. These conditions, though severe, were both formative as well as restorative, offering me the frame of mind for reflection and course correction. The quietude of the snow, absorbing sound cloaked the earth in a silence I’ve never beheld before, it made me reverent. My time at the Hub Feenix led me to a place of resolve both personally and professionally, encouraging me to embrace a new path forward as both a human being and as well as a creative. Surrounded by a community filled with compassion and warmth, I found not only a home away from home but also a space for internal alignment.
I am visual artist and I'm motivated by nature, its infinite forms and the structures that contain it, the organic and geometric morphologies.
I am a Dutch visual artist. In 2023 we were artists in residence at the Arctic Ceramic Centre, Posio, Finland. Nature has always been my inspiration, but recently I began to look at the (disastrous) influence humans have on nature. The project I am currently working on is Secrets/ Violence against Women. I paint portraits of abused women on bedsheets. Later I do a project, creating a phoenix from waste plastics for and with Hub Feenix. Thanks to: Cultuurfonds/VoordeKunst/Tijlfonds
