Test run: Team Finland at work in the general practice workshop

30.10.2020 Nick Haswell

The Finland, Norway and UK teams met once again via Zoom with the artists and art therapists for a test run of the first workshop, which will be conducted in late November (Finland) and January (Norway and UK). The aim of the test was to give all of us first-hand experience of the activities, structure and flow of the workshop, to better prepare us for the real ones fast approaching.

The Finnish team were fortunate to be able to meet in person for the practice workshop, meeting at Tampere University with the local participating art therapist, Elina Mantere.

Each of us brought in an object that represented, for us, an important relationship we had with another person in the present. Under the Zoomed guidance of art therapists Bobby and Miriam, we (as well as the Norwegian and UK team members remotely) used a variety of materials and techniques to create an artwork based on our object.

Here are the objects and related artworks of the Finnish team!:

Mervi: Knitting is my way of showing that I care, and that I want to keep my loved ones warm. My object (too big for the picture) is a wool jumper for my husband. Knitting it has taken a long time, and some parts of the pattern have been tricky. For me, this makes it a perfect symbol for a long relationship.

Marja: My object is a perfume bottle that I received from a Somali friend. The strong scent reminds me from hospitality and unique female culture, embodied in dance and rituals, which I have been privileged to experience during fieldwork in Finland and Somalia.

Fathya: My engagement ring symbolises a simplistic yet an exquisite story of love and acceptance, empathy and humility and everlasting bond of friendship.

Elina: My object is the fallen bark of an ancient pine tree. Through the relationship with my family (husband and children) I feel constant natural change, expansion and growth.

Nick: My object, a CD, represents the musical and creative relationship I share with my wife. The artwork shows the myriad colours, dynamic energy and meditative space that is created by the creativity that we share between us, and with our children.