Anna Charlotta Gardiner is a Finnish-Scottish mixed-media performance and installation artist who graduated from UHI Orkney in 2024. She has a background in anthropology, STEM, academic publishing and community theatre. Her practice seeks to unearth and excavate the space between myth and science, between the internal and external, heritage and dreams, to dwell in hidden poetic tangles that commune with the natural world.
As part of her environmentally conscious practice, she uses her dog’s fur as a primary medium, spinning and felting to make costumes that bring to life imagined beings. These gods or spirits are born through a process - and material-led approach, a form of applied animism and ritual play, informed by inter-disciplinary analytical drawing, research and writing.
This installation features three beings, Maan Emo, Ilman Emo and Veden Emo, ‘mothers’ of the earth, air and water, embedding concepts from Finnish mythology in the landscapes of Orkney.
