Om den finska polarexpeditionen till Sodankylä och Kultala åren 1883-83 och 1883-84 1885

Curator: Here we have "Om den finska polarexpeditionen till Sodankylä och Kultala åren 1883-83 och 1883-84," a print from 1885 created by diverse makers. It is an albumen print and it presents as an open sketchbook, with a landscape photograph juxtaposed with text. Editor: Right off the bat, it strikes me as…deliberately mundane. Like, an explorer's journal entry but focused on the weatherboard of some very ordinary-looking buildings. I guess that makes sense, right? Expedition journals probably had lots of dull moments. Curator: Precisely. This work leverages the semiotic contrast between the supposed grandeur of exploration and the banal reality. Observe the composition. On the left, a rather conventional landscape photo, slightly angled on the aged paper. Editor: You almost missed its flipped placement there! The building on its side does pull the eye more, almost destabilizes my perception of this being truth or lived experience. Curator: Indeed. And to the right, the facing page of text. The rigid font choice creates a direct contrast. The image displays nature, while the textual elements attempt to classify and, dare I say, dominate that very nature through language. Editor: Dominance— that’s a big word. I feel more like this is someone desperately trying to nail down something as unknowable and infinite as an expanse of wilderness. Curator: I concur it is evocative and maybe also hopeless, however the linear construction cannot be escaped: there is clear separation. And I argue that act of attempted classification via textual description is, inherently, about asserting control. Editor: Okay, control-adjacent. Let's give it that. Looking again, that old paper really throws into focus just how temporal this record is too. It’s aged, stained, worn... I wonder who held it, who poured over these pages? The paper stock even, gives it that vulnerable vibe like an intimate belonging being shared. Curator: Absolutely. The material itself speaks volumes—or perhaps tells quiet truths, acting almost as a witness to the passing of time. This material is more than support. This is memory being materialized. Editor: It becomes a quiet act of defiance too. A journal, preserved...defiant against that same, indifferent, icy landscape they recorded. Curator: Beautifully put. So much meaning captured in its visual construction and inherent semiotic and formal contrasts. Editor: Like capturing ice in words, or a memory in chemicals! Pretty incredible little package for us to unravel today.