REFLECTIONS on SENTIENCE
Cohort Testimonials
The Shaman Stumps -
The Wise Ones of Our Forests
By Satu Kalliokuusi
As a visual artist, I have always been close to nature and interested in the effects of sentience on other levels, not only humans or animals, but also of everything that exists in nature. So I've always been a very sensitive and feeling person and more emotional than average too. It's not easy to be such a sensitive person in this world. To be like a receiver of hundreds of emotional waves. That’s why I've often retreated into nature to wander by myself. This is how I have come to notice many things, for example, trees have become like friends to me.
Everything started from the birches. I've been observing birch trees for years because I have felt them especially close to me in many ways. I clearly feel that there is a strong connection between me and some birches, especially Betula pendula, the species of birch with long, drooping branches. I have also started to feel drawn to birch stumps and after spending time with them, I understood that these stumps are actually full of knowledge, and they are especially wise ones — like shamans. This is how I started having conversations with the stumps, asking questions that I had not received answers from any human. Stumps are especially good at answering questions related to the past and, for example, about deceased loved ones. I received answers that I couldn't expect from the human world. The answers have come in my body and in my mind. My mind is enlightened, becoming clearer while anxiety decreases. As I continued to have these dialogues with these shamans of the forests, I have begun to accept my heavy losses.
However, the best answer to my questions is that I have found a new way to exist, to be in contact with nature and understand its widespread meaning, and something about the wisdom of the forest. This connection to nature continues — which is a limitless possibility — and takes me to a very different, beautiful consciousness from a better world. In these days, I also make and use my own plant inks in my art as natural colours and, in this way, I also feel that the forest and nature speak to me and tell their own story through me and also to everyone else.
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All images on this page are copyright of the artist Satu Kalliokuusi.
Top: 'Shaman 1' (2024). Sumi ink and dragon blood on paper. (17cm x 17cm.)
Bottom: 'Shaman 3' (2024). Sumi ink and dragon blood on paper. (17cm x 17cm.)
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