References from the Desert
References from the Desert is my first 3D Diorama creating a kind of meta-reality by a comprehensive and immersive photography-based installation. This installation is based on travels to several national parks and desert in the US. It reflects on e.g. our relationship with landscape and nature and furthermore on travelling and landscape tourism, in relation to modern times and history. Work also ponders on how directing viewers gaze in the space changes viewing experience itself.
References from the Desert consists of several material and conceptual layers, which include large landscape photographs on canvas, standing photographic figures, framed photographs attached to stands and old stereo images. The installation also includes a soundscape. The photographs refer to iconic landscapes from the ‘Hollywood’s wild west'. An essential part of the References from the Desert installation is a wooden viewing platform built into the exhibition space, from which the art must be viewed as if from a safe distance. The viewing platform refers to similar platforms or peers at nature sites where you can observe birds, walk near endangered vegetation or explore the scenery from safe distance from potentially dangerous predators.

Installation view of References from the Desert at VB Photo Center in Kuopio, Finland 2023

Installation view of References from the Desert at VB Photo Center in Kuopio, Finland 2023

Installation view of References from the Desert at VB Photo Center in Kuopio, Finland 2023

Installation view of References from the Desert at VB Photo Center in Kuopio, Finland 2023

Installation view of References from the Desert at VB Photo Center in Kuopio, Finland 2023

Family Balanced Rock (Lee's Ferry, Arizona), 2023

Imaginative Traveller, 2023

Lonely Old Horse (Monument Valley, Navajo Nation, Arizona), 2023

Wondering About Life With Family #1 (Marble Canyon, Arizona), 2023

Wondering About Life With Family #2 (Marble Canyon, Arizona), 2023

Andromeda Galaxy Captured By Accident (Joshua Tree, California), 2023

Red Mountains #1 (Nevada), 2023

Valley of Fire (Nevada), 2023

The View from Nevada Trail (Joshua Tree, California), 2023

Painted Add-Ons # 2, 2023

Sky at Monument Valley (Navajo Nation, Arizona), 2023

From Grand Canyon North Rim towards Vermilion Cliffs (US-Hwy-89A, Arizona), 2023

Bird (Utah), 2023

Installation view of References from the Desert at VB Photo Center in Kuopio, Finland 2023