I’ll Sweep Your House, Chicken God Envoy & Nidnod, from Grandma’s Cabinet, Howick, 2012

Three works each connecting rituals and personal customs, presented at the Rauma Triennale, Lumoava vaiva / Enchanting Effort, 2025.

I’ll Sweep Your House (2008 – ongoing)

The broom is a particularly potent dramatic prop in the performance of English Folk Mummer’s plays. The lead character often begins the play carrying a broom with accompanying nonsense dialogue including the phrase “I’ll sweep your house”. The gesture and implication is that of making way for a common stage, a sweeping a stage into existence and making a place where the folk ritual can take place, be it on the street, in the living room, or in a pub.

Chicken God Envoy (2025)

A Hühnergott (chicken god) is a flintstone with a hole in the middle of it. It has been considered a talisman and protection symbol in many European cultures. In Germany, flintstones with holes in them are a very common tourist souvenir from the Baltic coast. This new ‘wildman’ costume is adorned with flintstones and is intended to be a talismanic bearer of good luck symbols.

Nidnod, from Grandma’s Cabinet, Howick, 2012 (2024)

Nidnod was a decorative ‘nodding’ porcelain doll that belonged to my grandmother:

“As a child, it was good luck when we were allowed to set it going in her cabinet. After my grandmother passed away, Nidnod was at my parents’ house for a while, which was where I shot the footage for this video. When my parents later moved, she was broken and lost. (I also found out that Nidnod was actually a monk with a basket and not an old lady – so was actually a he, but in my mind is still actually a she and related always to my grandmother.) In the video the doll nods eternally, affecting at least a positive reaction, perhaps even a comforting one.”