Roads To Nowhere

Roads to Nowhere is an exploration of North Karelia, Eastern Finland. Through, literature, anecdotes, conversations and my partners familial heritage, I have discovered North Karelia, the birthplace of the Finnish National Identity, the epic Kalevala, and the home of Finland’s national landscape. To my mind, the region's depictions in art, poetry, literature, and cinema, have granted it an almost mythical status. Roads To Nowhere is both an exploration of this mysticism, in contrast to the reality of rural depopulation. With loss of services and job opportunities, as well as changing agricultural practises, North Karelia has, like many rural European regions, suffered greatly from depopulation. Roads To Nowhere is an exploration of Karelia both within the context of Finnish history and within the context of depopulation and abandonment. Also, and in a much more personal way, Roads To Nowhere has been an opportunity for me to explore the culture and the landscapes of the country I now call home.