On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Untitled from the series Imaginary Homecoming

Photograph
1992 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Puranen, Jorma (photographers)
Place of origin
Anar (photographed)

Jorma Puranen (born 1951, Helsinki, Finland) explores the themes of history, culture, identity and memory in his work, creating a dialogue between the past and the present.

Object details

Category
Photographs
Object type
Photograph
TitleUntitled from the series Imaginary Homecoming (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Photographic paper: gelatin-silver process
Paper
Brief description
Photograph (1992) by Jorma Puranen, Finnish, showing archival negatives of the Sami people arranged under a light bulb in a snowy landscape in Lapland.
Physical description
Rectangular image showing an installation in a snowy landscape: fifteen negatives of portrait photographs are arranged in a circle and lit by a light bulb suspended above them.
Dimensions
  • Print height: 55.2cm
  • Print width: 81.6cm
  • Frame height: 56.1cm (Note: Measurement of object when framed)
  • Frame width: 81.6cm (Note: Measurement of object when framed - frame does not exceed width of print)
  • Height of grid height: 500cm (Note: Size of grid when all 18 photographs in the series are displayed together)
  • Width of grid width: 784cm (Note: Size of grid when all 18 photographs in the series are displayed together)
Production typeLimited edition
Copy number
3 of 20
Marks and inscriptions
'Jorma Puranen 1992 / untitled from the series / "Imaginary Homecoming" / printed by J. Puranen in 1997 / 3/20' (Textual information; English; Reverse side; Writing; pencil; 1999)
Gallery label
(15/06/2023)
The Finnish artist, Jorma Puranen, takes 19th-century archival images of the Sámi people, the indigenous population of the region of Sápmi (formerly known as Lapland), and inserts them into contemporary landscapes. Projected by electricity onto a snowscape, past generations are brought to light. Their presence is both mysterious and redemptive, an acknowledgement of decades of cultural marginalisation.
Subjects depicted
Memory
Negative
Place depicted
Anar
Summary
Jorma Puranen (born 1951, Helsinki, Finland) explores the themes of history, culture, identity and memory in his work, creating a dialogue between the past and the present.
Bibliographic reference
Puranen, Jorma. Imaginary Homecoming Oulu (Finland): Kustantaja, 1999. 91p., ill
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.429-1999

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Record createdNovember 18, 1999
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O12206/untitled-from-the-series-imaginary-photograph-puranen-jorma/
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