Helmi Kukka Kärki

"The stars were bright the night she froze" explores embroidery as a medium of storytelling, tracing a feminist history of women recording pain and survival through textiles. Addressing domestic violence, femicide, and generational trauma, the work frames landscape as an ecofeminist allegory, linking the exploitation of land with violence against women. It also reflects on the shared visual language of embroidery traditions across cultures, rooted in common needs to remember, communicate, and heal.

The story depicted in the work is open, unclear, non-linear, and non-concluded. Its non-linearity stems from the unclarity of the situation; cases of domestic violence are rarely straightforward and simply explainable in essence. The causes and consequences are woven into people’s lives in non-linear ways.

When entering the work, the audience becomes surrounded by the landscape thus also becoming surrounded by the story. The isolation and suffocation evoked brings forward a feeling of intimacy. There is no clear escape and there is no correct ending nor beginning.