Hanna Tuulikki, ‘Seals’kin’ (2022)

For our November ONE WORK screening we are presenting Hanna Tuulikki’s work ​‘Seals’kin’ (2022).

Hanna Tuulikki’s ​‘Seals’kin’ is a sonic and choreographic meditation on loss, longing, transformation and kinship, shot on location in coastal Aberdeenshire. 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 her own recent experiences of loss to reimagine a contemporary mourning rite. Referencing traditional selkie tales as bereavement allegories and seal calling songs as practices of making kin, she adopts the sealskin as a powerful ritual object to explore how grief can open out new ways of knowing and being that stretch beyond human bodies into a visceral connection with the more-than-human world. ​‘Seals’kin’ was originally commissioned for the 23^rd Biennale of Sydney, 2022, which focused on rivers, wetlands and other salt and freshwater ecosystems as dynamic living systems.

For our November ONE WORK event (7.30 – 8.30pm on 23 November) Hanna Tuulikki will discuss her recent work​‘Seals’kin’ (2022). You can book a place for this event here.

Image description: A colour film still shows a close up of an estuary. A person is lying on the bank of the river, looking towards the camera. They are dressed in a costume that covers their whole body, leaving only their face visible. The material of the costume replicates the markings of a sealskin and their legs are raised from the ground. On the bank opposite are a group of grey and common seals.