Body diary

From July 2021 to June 2022, I kept a journal that focused on the body and its functions. Inspired by the body diary, I made a brooch from each month, and build up an exhibition to Otava’s old prayer room, the exhibition was open from August 19 to September 4, 2022.

In addition to the brooches, I edited the introduction from June’s audio diary and asked Kaiku Koru’s Kaisu Tullinen to make me a death garment from old sheets. During the exhibition I sewed my hair into the death dress. I love to sew by hand, but I have a strange fear of loose hair, so I try to get rid of the fear by combining disgust with passion.

The work led me to also think about what I want to be left of me when I die? I brought the concept of my burial to the exhibition. The ideal cemetery for me would be a forest. I want to be cremated, and the ashes will be buried with a tree planting in the forest with a landing urn. This kind of forest cemetery is already a working concept in Germany and I want to bring this concept to Finland during my lifetime. I made the urn and miniature urns in the exhibition under the guidance of skilled ceramist Paula Ruuttunen, and they are objects of use. I have planted the ash seedling that was in the exhibition in the ground. In the summer I changed my last name to my mother’s maiden name Pölhö. The ceramic vase, which represented an urn in the exhibition, was the last piece that I signed as Manninen, is it a coincidence?