Josefina Nelimarkka
Josefina Nelimarkka is an interdisciplinary artist whose research-based practice moves across environment, perception, and experientiality. Through ephemeral materiality and spatial datafication, her meditative installations investigate the fluid continuum between air and water and Earth time, focusing on the symbiotic relationship between nature and technology. The ever-shifting nature of her works is tied to the momentary changes in atmosphere, light and weather conditions, encouraging a radical form of deep listening that goes beyond observation, towards recognising embodied knowledge in the environment – creating new modes of sensing, being and experiencing presence.
In this exhibition, Josefina Nelimarkka combines artistic experimentation with interdisciplinary research to explore natural phenomena, climate futures, and expanded perception. In The Cloud of Un/knowing, she draws on Iceland’s meteorological forces and the glacial processes of Vatnajökull, tracing water’s movement through the hydrological cycle as both physical process and metaphor for uncertainty.
The work consists of three independent elements:
The Cloud Hour (Video and sound installation, interactive data technology)
Real-time data from a weather station atop the Nordic House drives the shifting video and sound, translating invisible atmospheric conditions into vaporous visuals and sonic textures. The weather station on the roof of the Nordic House was built in collaboration with Vaisala in Finland.
Intensities, futurities (Glass sculptures, data-driven light)
The light in the glass works changes in real time according to the water isotope values detected from water vapour in the glacier Vatnajökull. Subtle movements reveal formations of air trapped inside the glass as a result of the dynamic glassblowing process. The work highlights the invisible, rapidly changing yet meaningful moments that are constantly occurring in the areas that are warming faster than the rest of the Earth.
Beneath the transient states, there is now (Silk installation, nanomicroscopy)
The artwork is based on the artist’s long-term research on ancient weather. The information on the climatic processes of the past is stored in the environment, carried by rocks, meteorites, corals, and algae. Images of these were produced with the nanomicroscope meet on the surface of the silk. Traces of the climates of different times and places manifest how sensitively nature has reacted to the environmental changes when conditions on Earth have altered.
Bio
Josefina Nelimarkka has graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki and Royal College of Art in London. Her artworks have been exhibited internationally in museums, galleries and outdoor sites, most recently at Institute finlandais in Paris, Amos Rex Museum in Helsinki and UN Climate Conference COP30 in Brasil. Her current research looks into the arctic clouds and weather systems within climate change, emphasising on the dialogue between art and science.
Listen to Josefina talk about her work, she speaks english in the video: