The Sacred Realm of the Forest Elf
consists of 11 tree stumps covered with red felt Central Park of Helsinki. 2005

photo: Huima and Lea Turto

“The Elf’s Realm” consists of tree stumps covered with red felt, dotted in one area of the forest. I cut the felt to shape as you would with garments, both to reveal and to cover the fascinating shapes of the roots and tree stumps. Other than that, I left the area in its natural state.

In this art work, I wanted to examine the spiritual meaning of the forest, the pantheistic connection with nature that our Finnish culture is rooted in.

Hiisi is a Finnish word, originally meaning a sacred grove. Hiisi was thought of as atemple: people gathered there to celebrate with food and to sacrifice to the forest gods. Hiisi was also a gateway to the past and a connection with the dead. It was an intermediate space between two worlds, and the Tree of Life was often situated in this grove. When Christianity arrived, the secret groves were destroyed and the name hiisi was changed to mean either devil or hell. Even so it is only some one hundred and fifteen years since sacrificial offerings were last found on the branches of the sacred trees, although the clergy had begun their destruction in 1229. Our native beliefs were strongly embedded in people’s minds.