Single channel moving image and stereo sound, 19 mins 15 sec, 2022
Seals’kin (choreographic visual score), Flocking screenprint on somerset antique white, 90cm x 76cm, Edition of 9 with 3 APs, 2022
Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney, Hanna’s short film Seals’kin is a sonic and choreographic meditation on loss, longing, transformation and kinship, shot on location in coastal Aberdeenshire in January 2022.
At the mouth of the river Ythan, where the freshwater meets the North Sea, hundreds of grey and common seals haul out on the estuary banks. Here, Tuulikki explores with her body what it might mean to become-with-seal, drawing on myths of human-seal hybridity and folkloric musical practices to offer alternative forms of mourning through sensuous identification with more-than-human kin.
To accompany the film work, Hanna created an edition of visual score prints, which can be viewed here. To develop the score, Hanna explored the silhouette as a template for movement, working with hand drawn outlines of grey and common seals. Mimicking their shapes with her body, these mimetic poses became the basis for the choreography in the film, with the resulting visual score combining seal and human-seal forms in a flocking screen-print reminiscent of furry mottled seal skin.
