Andreas Alariesto was born on 11.12.1900 in the village of Riesto in Sodankylä. He died on 29 November 1989 in Sodankylä.
Andreas Alariesto's home regions, the villages of Sompio and Loka and their surroundings, have for the most part fallen under the current Loka reservoir.
“I have created these images because the current and future generations know nothing about the past or the lives of our ancestors, and soon my brush, too, will cease to paint.” With these words, Andreas Alariesto summarized his life’s mission.
Andreas Alariesto serves in many ways as an interpreter of a bygone era, portraying the vanished Lapland and its people. His childhood was a time of great transformation in Sámi culture and way of life. He witnessed the old kotas (traditional Sámi tents) and the changes brought by modernity. In his paintings, one can often see a juxtaposition of a kota and a log building, symbolizing their coexistence. His childhood village of Riesto, one of the last wilderness villages in the Sompio region, was largely submerged under the Lokka reservoir. Along with the reservoirs, much of the old Sompio culture also disappeared. Alariesto’s paintings, sculptures, and songs vividly depict the life, stories, history, and way of life of Lapland, particularly in the Sompio region, during the early decades of the 20th century. During his road work, Alariesto became familiar with the lives of small Sámi villages in the Kola Peninsula and Norwegian Lapland. His work captures not only the Sámi of Finland but also the Skolt Sámi and Norwegian Sámi.
Andreas Alariesto is regarded as an important preserver of culture and a creator of cultural treasures. He acquired a camera in the 1910s, using it to document life as it was then. He recognized the disappearance of his era and the importance of preserving old traditions. He endeavored to document the old ways of life as thoroughly as possible through drawing and photography. He sketched pictures in his notebook and photographed villages and people. These images complemented and clarified oral stories. Unfortunately, almost all his photographs and notes have been lost over time.
Andreas Alariesto: A Storyteller of Lapland
Riitta Kuusikko, Rovaniemi Art Museum
“In my opinon, the texts for all the pictures say too little. The pictures open up so many kinds of views before us, that a book could be written about each one of the pictures.”
Andreas Alariesto
Andreas Alariesto had a truly natural gift. He had not received any kind of education in art, nor he had the possibility to study the works of leading Finnish and Nordic artists. Everything springs from his own natural talent and from his memories of traditional Sámi folklore. The result is a vast output of artistic and ethnological importance which is hard to match anywhere and which is in a category by itself.