For centuries people have been controlling water. We claim land from water - building land between former islands, re-directing rivers and digging canals. We use water as a dump, releasing agricultural waste and the fuel from our ships into it. We wash out our artificially flavoured sweat with chlorine. We fish. Water fights back with floods, tsunamis and drowning. Swimmers and fishermen go under, cities sink. Water leaves greenish slime in walls. Redefining the coast line, the border between the natural and the manmade is disappearing, bobbing and sinking.
It’s a patient game of chance for both sides. Fish cannot live without water, I cannot breath when submerged. The bobber is the indicator, the border control between the two worlds of life and death.
Kokemäenjoki is the strongest river in Finland. Pori city planning department is working hard to tame it, to ensure it poses no threat to the citizens. A dam is built where formerly there was Herralahti. The dam is a locked door, it stops the water, imprisons it. It cannot go past the dam. Can it?
Fishing bobber goes up and down. Is it an unlucky fish struggling on the hook, or is it just the current? I go home after a day of fishing, close my eyes and see the bobber.
Reversing the control and imagining a disastrous situation where water does fight back, I went fishing with a dam-house. Fishing is a manifestation of man strategically wrestling with water. I cannot see what is under the surface of the water so I send the hook and the bait to lure the invisible fish for us. I wait for a fish to be tempted with the worm, and swallow the hook. I yank it out, and sometimes I get it, sometimes I don’t. I fish for fun, I fish to feed myself.