The Unheard

“The Unheard“/2026

Photo series/graphics/collage

I grew up in Karelia, where the Kalevala epic was part of everyday memory. But women’s voices were always muffled—on the periphery of the narrative, like a backdrop to men’s exploits. Their pain, loss, and lack of choice were inscribed in the canon, but unheard. 

This project is my return to the epic with a different perspective. I enter it not to illustrate runes, but to intervene: to reveal the repressed—pain that went unnoticed, choice that was not given, the body turned into a background. 

The series is built on the layering of photography, lithography, collage, and monotype. Each image is like a wound that I re-bandage, shifting emphasis and disrupting the usual hierarchy of views. 

“The Unheard” is an attempt to cut through the canon and allow female figures to emerge from the shadows. These stories are not only about myth. They reflect the experiences of women whose voices exist within the system but remain on its edge.

This is what I reveal: Louhi is not a witch, but a mother who has lost her children. Her rage is grief. Aino is not a symbol of the lost bride, but a victim deprived of the right to choose. This is not a romantic death. It is a room without doors. Lemminkäinen’s mother is barely visible in the epic. I bring her to the foreground. A close-up: a woman’s hands. In the epic, her actions are taken for granted. In my image, they become the central act.

Kyllikki embodies submission and violence, revealing the mechanisms of patriarchal domination. There is only domestic duty, order, and the authority of another’s word. Marjatta is both saint and sinner, branded by society with shame and disgrace.

My photographs are not illustrations of the Kalevala. They are my intervention. I cut into the canon, shift its layers, and compel its female figures to emerge from the shadows.

These stories are not only about an ancient epic. In them, I recognise myself and the women around me. I, too, was taught that the most important thing for a woman was to marry. That her pain was merely the background to someone else’s heroic deed. That her choices did not matter.

My project is about listening closely to those who are not heard—even when their voices are inscribed within the myth that is considered the dominant one.