Lyy Raitala’s Nesting explores the creation, remembrance and preservation of the home through photography, collage and small household objects. In the exhibition currently on view in the foyer gallery of Photo North – Northern Photography Centre, household belongings, piles, boxes, attic closets and basement corners serve as subjects of exploration in works where small details evoke a life lived. The layers of home are built like nests – layer by layer, from different materials, memories and traces left by time.
The photographs in the collage-like works are chromogenic prints, or C-prints, that Raitala produced herself in a darkroom. These small prints, reminiscent of contact sheets, allude to the nature of photographs as an archive and a way of organising memories. The photographs were taken primarily in 2025 in homes in northern Finland, as well as in the Netherlands at locations that are in a state of transition between being in use and being abandoned. The works document spaces, materials and details before they might change or disappear. Raitala’s photographs serve both as observations of the present and as traces of the past. For Raitala, the composition of her works is part of a process of remembrance and care. Instead of flaws, she sees stains, wear and tear and small cracks as traces of a life lived – and as signs of time, use and care.
Raitala is interested in exploring how objects, surfaces and buildings carry personal and collective experiences and emotions with them. The small details of home embody care, emotions, memories and ways of creating a sense of security, continuity and belonging. For Raitala, the items found in the attics of her grandparents and relatives serve as evidence and a tangible archive of the changes in lifestyle and its rhythm. Through her attention to detail, Raitala has also captured the remnants of houses falling into disuse in sparsely populated areas. The exhibition explores migration and the passage of time. Buildings remain standing as repositories of memory even when life around them changes.
Nesting explores how memories become attached to ordinary objects and how care is reflected in simple gestures, such as preserving and repairing them. What do we decide to keep, and what do we let fade away little by little?
The exhibition opening is held on 4th of September, 17:00 to 19:00. The opening starts at the main gallery. Welcome!
Lyy Raitala
Nesting
5.9.-20.12.2026
Photo North – Northern Photographic Centre, foyer gallery
(image: Lyy Raitala, Untitled (Nesting), 2026)
