I was approached by a Finnish artist named Mari Keski-Korsu almost a year ago. She told me she was working on a documentary about Finnish immigration and the stories about how Finnish Americans came to be here and why they left Finland. She wanted to tell the stories of their children how they adapted to life in America. My mother is a native of Finland (The Vasankari family from Turku) and last year, I applied for and received my Finnish citizenship, so now i am a dual-citizen. I was incredibly proud to have my work shown in Finland for the first time in conjunction with the Pori Jazz Festival in 2009 and now i have a gallery dedicated solely to showing my work in Helsinki called Fazzino Showroom.
I was happy to grant Mari an interview. She came all the way from Finland by ship to my studio in New York and we had the pleasure of spending the day together. I recently received an email from her that the documentary is finished and in fact, it is being exhibited now through April 17th at the Taidelhalli in the Kunsthalle in Helsinki (the Helsinki Art Museum). I thought i would share the video with you. It’s very interesting to anyone who studies immigration or who has relatives who came to this country during the hey day of immigration in the early 1900’s.
Here’s Greener Grass…… Enjoy!
