Beloved community: multidisciplinary artist Karolina Iissalo
Karolina Iissalo is a Helsinki based multidisciplinary artist and healer that in her work draws inspiration from nature and her personal experiences with healing her body.
For the future of the collective she envisions a revitalization of life-cycle rituals and rites of passage as part of our modern society, something that she beautifully includes and offers in her artwork, individual healing sessions and ceremonies.
Hi Karolina! How are you? What paths in your life has lead you to where you are today and how you show up in the world?
Hello <3 I'm doing great, thank you. I'm enjoying the crispy air of the northern autumn and the splendid colors, scents, and sounds of the mushroom forest. I'm eagerly looking forward to the Cosmic Womb ceremony I'll be holding in a few days.
I believe a significant part of my strong nature-centered work stems from spending my summers in the archipelago since childhood. There, I was able to be wild and free, play and grow in nature, with companions like fish, water, plants, shells, bones, and other treasures I found. The nature of the archipelago is an immensely important place for me, from which I constantly draw inspiration for my work.
The essence of my work, the focus on embodiment, probably originated from my early struggles with bodily pain – the need to cleanse things on a personal level through creation first, and then to bring the personal to a broader level, through art and healing. The creation of my artworks and ceremonies starts with the question of what is surfacing in my body, what needs purification, and what on a collective level needs to be heard and seen – to be cared for. I feel that the sensations in my body have been my guiding lights, indicators of what to address, leading me to explore subjects like nudity, sexual violence, the subjugation of the female body, and in recent years, the womb. I used to be in conflict with my pain, until I realized it was my strength, my gift. By healing the pain in myself, I have the space to give to others as well.
What is your relationship to arts and healing?
For me, arts are a form of healing, and healing is an art. I feel these two aspects exist symbiotically; healing, whether for example through voice or touch, is an art that flows through the body, and creating my artworks as a form of healing starts with the perspective of "what needs to be seen, what needs healing?".
I view bodies as delicate structures of art, sensitive frameworks that a healer, an artist, must sense the unique rhythm of. By sensing and merging with this rhythm, this trance, the healing can permeate and the recipient can find a supported space for realignment. This space holds a magic that, I believe, is beyond the reach of verbal reality.
My ceremonies are a great example of merging arts and healing; I see the ceremonial space as a rite of passage, a space where transformation is profoundly present. In the ceremony, the external world recedes, and the participant has the space to descend into themselves, to turn inward, in a shared, held space. Creating a healing space through sound is the most exquisite experience for me. I often establish the foundation of the ceremonial space with natural sounds, upon which I channel sound journeys using various instruments like the flute and drum. I also enjoy incorporating sounds from different plants, such as birch twigs, to create a soft ambiance in the space. Simple sounds hold great power. In the previous Cosmic Womb ceremony, I journeyed through each woman's womb with a shamanic drum. The connection between the drum and the womb was truly magical; they danced together, the drum activating, supporting, and nurturing the womb. I felt the power of both the participating women and the collective womb being activated.
The roots of art lie in rituals. The earliest representations of humans have been ritual objects known as fertility figurines, depicting the female body. Healing and arts have therefore walked hand in hand with our ancestors. I feel guided to create and offer spaces where these two merge; where we revitalize our cultural heritage by bringing rites of passage, arts as ritual, and healing into the same space.
Tell us a little about the ways you channel and express your artistic wisdom in this world; your photographic + auditive artistry, your offerings for women — what inspires you to create in these mediums?
I have so much to say that I'm not sure where to begin. I've used the camera to capture bodily performances, where I've explored themes like women's rootlessness, the relationship with nature, and witch hunts. While the camera can document and share the surrounding beauty, when turned towards oneself in self-portraiture, it becomes a mirror of the body, a tool to articulate and unravel internal reality. Recently, I became interested in an alternative, ecological process of film development, seeing the potential to infuse healing layers into the development of film. Instead of using the chemical film development process, I prepared the emulsion from beetroots, rose petals collected from my ancestral land, and my menstrual blood. These ingredients carried their own energies into the development process, serving as symbolic, medicinal, and political storytellers, influencing what was captured on film – the body. Incorporating herbal medicine into various stages of photographic development is highly intriguing, a rabbit hole one can delve into for eternity.
I worked with photography and video for years, but felt that something was missing; I yearned for more physical human interaction. This desire transformed my work into spaces that I now create for women. Music and playing instruments have always been present in my life, but now there's a renewed call to create through sound, and crafting sound journeys feels important and right for me.
What can frequency/tunes/music teach us about our life; the micro- and the macrocosmos?
Music has an incredible gift for taking us into the depths of our cosmos. Through music, we can connect simultaneously with both the micro- and macrocosmos, to be in our internal universe, in contact with our deepest selves, while also being open and connected to the macrocosmos. These are states I aim to provide during the sound journeys I offer.
The power of music and sound lies in the indescribable, sensory reality. You can’t see sound physically, but through frequencies, sound can manifest as figures, geometrically harmonious artworks, as we have seen with experiments with sand for example. So if sound can create these kind of sacred geometrical works, how potent is the sound healing our nervous system or our cells for example?
What are/is your dream(s) for the future; what are you envisioning for yourself and the collective?
A vibrant, flowing body, pristine nature, nutrient-rich and wild food, and communal, nature-listening living are the visions that first came to mind for the collective well-being.
In this increasingly isolating and extreme individualism-oriented Western society, I envision the revitalization of life-cycle rituals and rites of passage as part of our modern society. I feel our bodies have a need to make space for our internal rhythms, connected with the cycles of the nature and supported and shared by the community. I also envision removing the stigma around herbal medicine and energy work from our society.
As I grow older, my needs and life become simpler. To be vital in my own body, to share everyday life with loved ones, and to fulfill my soul's mission, in service. That is the sacred trinity, the pillar from which to embark on growth. I envision and live the deepening of work with sound and somatic healing. I also envision a temple, a space where I can facilitate rites of passage, ceremonies, rituals – creative spaces to hold art exhibitions, performances and concerts. And most importantly, to bring people together, to learn, empower, grow and enjoy together.
“I used to be in conflict with my pain, until I realized it was my strength, my gift. By healing the pain in myself, I have the space to give to others as well.”
Cosmic Womb Cacao Ceremony with Karolina Friday September 22nd at 18.00-20.30 at the Helsinki Healing Arts Center
send an email to
reserve your spot ✍︎
→ follow Karolina @magiakarolina to learn more about her work and offerings!