tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6386382642872086812024-03-18T19:54:02.908-07:00HampaatWritings on art by Kaino WennerstrandUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-83144767748249841692021-10-06T10:52:00.007-07:002021-10-06T10:54:40.825-07:00Future is Feudal? My text for Kenno Filmi's 'Takes' publication<p>Hello honeybees,</p><p>Here's a recent text of mine. It's about how sound designers sell proof of upper class for clients, and why all of us precarious workers should come together under one trade union, with some cutaways to here and there. I'll put out a few more texts, too, as soon as they've been published.<br /></p><p>Warm thanks to everyone at Kenno films for editing and selecting my text for the Takes publication. The texts were proofread by Joss Allen, Katie Lenanton, and Sourav Roy, and I thank them dearly. </p><p>This text was written in August 2020. Hope it's still worth its salt!</p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.44; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 11pt;">***</p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.44; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 11pt;"><b>The Future is Feudal? Global Strike, Trade Unions, and Sound Designers.</b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.44; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 11pt;"><br /><b>Learning to be precarious</b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.44; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 11pt;"><b> </b><br />Growing up, I’d never known any artists. Not quite so: my maternal grandfather Risto played in a folk band. He taught me how to read sheet music. By today’s standards, he’d be labelled a precarious culture worker. Risto worked as a reporter, teacher, and touring musician, while picking up board duties here and there, from a disability association to the local city council. It sounds not unlike the working life of many of my peers. While he was active in many non-profit associations, I don’t know if my grandfather belonged to a trade union. His “real” profession was teaching. People knew Risto as the principal of a tiny elementary school near my childhood home. This would make OAJ, The Trade Union of Education in Finland, a natural fit for him. But he ran on the conservative ticket for a council seat, so perhaps he didn’t belong to a union. (Then again, Akava, the trade union for academic workers, to which OAJ belongs, is probably the most right-leaning union in Finland.) <br /><br />While I was aware of the strain such a lifestyle can have on familial ties, the precarious career path my grandfather modelled stuck to me. He even learned to do websites later in life. The many roles he inhabited fell on him, I guess, because money needed to be made. But maybe he was uninterested in—or incapable of—concentrating on just one thing. It could’ve been both; when you’re a freelancer or a gig worker, your interests and realities fold into each other, leaving you unsure of which is which. Am I into project work because I like the constant change, or have I conditioned myself to like the change because I have no other option? <br /><br />Between 2003 and 2009, studying sound design in the Theatre Academy in Helsinki, I became accustomed to precarious work. To cover my rent, I’d work as a technical assistant, moonlighting at anything from an academic conference to a sound installation by an artist booked for some faraway festival. During the latter gig, I returned to Helsinki the next morning—having not been able to get any sleep on the floor of the venue—and headed straight to class, dozing off while a professor lectured us about minimalist music. Bit by bit, I ended up making exhibitions and performances myself, while sound design duties began to fade from my focus. My budding career crossed paths with my grandfather’s; at one point, I wrote art criticism for the Turun Sanomat, the same newspaper that once published him. I began to receive invitations for board duties. While finishing my BA studies, I joined Äänen Lumo, an association for sound art in Helsinki, and volunteered to organise concerts and sound art events. A board member from Lighting, Sound, and Video Designers in Finland (SVÄV) came to talk to my class about union membership. Being a leftist, I signed up. So far, the membership has yielded little returns. In the eleven years since I graduated, I’ve had only one steady job for three months, which means I’ve never qualified for an earnings-related unemployment allowance (ansiosidonnainen in Finnish), which is considerably more than the basic benefit for the unemployed, and only available for unionised workers who can prove their hours.<br /><br />Not that I was really looking for steady work opportunities. It had started: unconsciously, I was calibrating my interests to fold into the precarious work life. I would tell myself how much I enjoy the freedom of gig work and freelancing. Like my grandfather Risto, my lifestyle was inseparable from my work: there were always places to be, papers to fill in, projects to advance, gigs to be covered; whatever leisure time I craved, it had to happen within those limits. I remember drinking cheap sparkling wine from plastic cups on a rainy Sunday afternoon, strolling through the hip Punavuori district in Helsinki while hosting a German sound artist, and telling myself that this is not that bad.<br /><br />Being white, able-bodied, Finnish-speaking, and male-passing has certainly helped in not crumbling under the chaos of freelancing, along with whatever serendipity there may exist; privilege and luck seem to be the keys to successful precarity. But as I got older and went through depression, complimentary drinks didn’t really cut it anymore. Meeting people and seeing places lost their appeal. I was more interested in adequate compensation without the obligatory affective labour. As is typical for professional work in the creative industry, I’ve always had an idea of my ‘own’ work gleaming somewhere in the horizon, excusing the many compromises you’ll make in your career. “[D]ifficulties and hardship are accepted as part of a project of self-regulation and discipline by a worker in pursuit of future creative fulfilment which will never be attained”, write Stephanie Taylor and Karen Littleton, based on the findings of Nikolas Rose on subjectification. The real, lived experience of a creative worker is more complicated. Foucauldian readings render invisible the daily social interactions and networks of friends and colleagues that give meaning to your work (Taylor & Littleton 2013). Failing to see any value in precarious work-life and merely condemning it, the left is only harming itself, like I did to myself by cutting myself off from art’s social circles—and social media—some years ago. As Alessandro Gandini has written on digital creative labour: “it seems wise for the Left to stop fighting digital work as exploitative per se, but actually learning how to represent those that are most negatively affected by the existence of a labour market that makes cheap and unfair labour convenient—and start thinking about ways to create the conditions for making it inconvenient” (Gandini 2016). <br /><br />The problem is not precarity but its terms. I don’t mind doing gigs—I can’t imagine doing anything else—but I don’t want to be alone in the uncertainty, stress, and mindless competition. I want to figure out how we can fight successfully together against the exploitation of poor and working class people. First, we need to make sure people understand they are workers, no matter what shiny perks or dreams of class advancement their bosses or educational institutions dangle in front of them. But before we get to that, let’s take a quick look at precarity’s history.<br /><br /><b>The power of neoliberalism</b><br /><br />Precarious work is probably as old as human culture. There’s always been travelling salespeople, temporary farmhands, and hustlers and peddlers of many kinds. The neoliberal era has embraced this phenomenon in full with its insistence on keeping the work force fluid: workers must be ready to move, re-educate themselves, and accept any and all changes both in pay and conditions. The dawn of neoliberalism appeared roughly a hundred years ago. A group of economists dreamed that a global market, free of all constraints, would be the optimal world order. Their recommendations included demolishing tariffs and crushing unions. Led by economists Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, the impact of these policies peaked with austerity politics and waves of market deregulation in the 1980s. The heavy-handed economic interventions to budding marketplaces in the Global South favoured corporate interests over those of the state. Loans were given to target countries under the condition that those on the receiving end must ease their property and tax laws, thus welcoming multinational corporations who are always out to scavenge for natural resources and cheap labour. Virtually every country on earth has followed—or was made to follow—suit. Parties, too: as Margaret Thatcher remarked, Tony Blair turning the Labor Party into a replica of Thatcher’s neoliberal policies was her greatest achievement. Staying outside globalism is not an option, because like the case of independent retailers forced to accept Amazon's draconian conditions, there is no alternative marketplace. And as always, the strongest nations and corporations set the rules while having no intention to adhere to them. Historian Quinn Slobodian has described how “the right of the hegemon is the right to break the rules. Just as the U.S. subsidised its agriculture while preaching free trade, the CAP [EU’s system for setting farm produce prices] created a protectionist Europe even as it began pressuring the EEC’s [a precursor to EU] Associated States to transition their exports to world market prices” (Slobodian 2018).<br /><br />But beyond its creation of a functioning free market, the neoliberal program was even more successful as a form of control. The project set forth by von Mises and Hayek, among others, was “developed precisely as a response to the growth of mass democracy” (ibid., 34). Budding democracies were forced to adopt austerity measures and were told they wouldn’t stay competitive otherwise. These policies helped in fragmenting society into individuals competing against each other. To achieve the competitive edge, neoliberalists proposed wages and corporate taxes be set as low as possible. Unions were antagonised early on, and strikes would be treated as bumps on the road, to be flattened out by any means necessary. As Slobodian shows, “The right to kill with impunity under emergency powers met [Ludwig von] Mises’ approval” (ibid., 45). An organised workforce has neither offered an equally-sweeping worker’s movement, nor a set of widely adopted programs to counter both the global domination of the neoliberal model, and the internal opposition it has created in the ranks of workers and the poor. A key tenet of neoliberalism is the idea of global markets. Ironically, it can’t be realised without centralised planning: institutions such as the World Trade Organization guard the free-market policies, even though neoliberalism is often regarded as being against centralisation. The other side has not come up with similar tools. The socialist left in Europe has spent the last hundred years stuck sussing out its relationship to nationalism, with little to show for it. We haven’t evolved into a global movement with similar reach than neoliberalism currently enjoys. Another scathing irony is that we in the left have no centralised power: leftist politics rely on national parliamentarism or local grassroots activism. While both are important, they should be seen as sub-sections of a more universal opposition against inequality.<br /><br />In Northern Europe, the most noticeable attempt of late at a global movement has been the Extinction Rebellion (ER) movement, which tries to halt the climate crisis. Being leaderless, non-violent, and with extremely ambitious aims, it has struggled to create enough unified, unidirectional pressure to challenge and ultimately break the neoliberal status quo. The rhetoric wielded by ER activists is not hostile to class issues: they acknowledge the climate crisis stems from the choices made by industry giants and world’s most powerful politicians, not from individual consumer choices. After all, the concept of a personal carbon footprint was created by ExxonMobil as a PR stunt to shift the blame from oil companies to consumers (Westervelt 2018). Such stunts remind us how the need for global, collective action is absolutely crucial. Yet ER has signed off from “party politics”, which—as we’ve seen with the wobbly trajectories of Green Parties in various countries—often leads to a de facto alignment with the liberal right. A recent tweet by Extinction Rebellion UK spelled out their stance: “Just to be clear we are not a socialist movement. We do not trust any single ideology, we trust the people, chosen by sortition (like jury service) to find the best future for us all through a #CitizensAssembly A banner saying ‘socialism or extinction’ does not represent us.” Socialism isn’t the only way to fight the climate crisis. But trying to come up with a citizen assembly, i.e. a novel form of governance, instead of relying on tried-and-tested platforms such as unions, workers’ movements, and social justice organisations—most of which stand decidedly and vocally on the left—seems like a huge stretch under this pressing global catastrophe. Finally, while labour unions aren’t inherently leftist—the union for police officers being a prime example—the idea of collective workers’ action is deeply tied into the history, and the future, of labour parties.<br /><br />Let us return to the term “neoliberalism”. Should we not use it? Can one concept work as a blanket statement for all that’s wrong in the world? Perhaps the term makes no sense anymore; for example, the European Union’s protectionist policies are a far cry from classical neoliberalism; Keynesian stimulus policies are making a return with the COVID-19 crisis; and what should we call China's system? Call it what you will, we must accept that after a century of forcing deregulation and anti-union policies down our throats, neoliberalism is winning everywhere, even if current liberal economic policies cannot be classified as neoliberalist. Its victory won’t be diminished by belittling anyone who dares to use the word. True, neoliberalism doesn’t explain why the world is full of misery. It could be that way regardless: in changing the world for what you deem is better, people can inadvertently create something worse, and often have done so. And neoliberalism might not even be the worst of it. According to Ajay Singh Chaudhary, capitalism’s gains can be largely “rolled back”, if income equality keeps rising: democratic societies could be dragged back to the static class divisions and hereditary rulers of feudalism. American meritocracy is little more than inherited wealth paving the way for a family's offspring. History is non-linear and might not bend towards justice. Perhaps the future is not female, as the slogan for mainstream feminism goes, but feudal. Another example: in Pankaj Mishra’s telling, the decolonisation of India—moving from British rule towards a process of independence—has been anything but a neat story of uninterrupted expansion coupled with democracy and equality. In the decades following World War II, as India was hailed a “non-communist nation-state of overwhelmingly poor people, trying to create an egalitarian society and an internationally competitive economy”, it has been led astray by “cold-blooded fanatics” such as the current prime minister Narendra Modi, bent on eradicating all minority religions from India. It’s worth asking if any of our model democracies—such as India or the USA—are what they say they are. Following Samuel Huntington, Mishra notes how “the American republic continues to resemble a Tudor monarchy more closely even than Britain’s constitutional monarchy”. It’s also worth remembering that the worst effects of neoliberalism, such as a precarious workforce or colonial theft disguised as a streamlining of commerce, are not new. But before our time, they didn’t constitute a set of aggressively guarded, all-encompassing commandments. At the very least, they weren’t safeguarded by a professional class and a global corporate elite. From mainstream economists parroting these views in the media, to political leaders feverishly selling deregulation and privatisation to voters, neoliberalism has no shortage of willing mouthpieces. In Finland, the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) has managed to make all alternatives to its economic policy seem utopian and naive, while infinite growth by any means necessary and expanding deregulation and privatisation are made to look like the natural state of things. Labour unions, too, have auditioned for the part: their leaders today talk about the primacy of perpetual economic growth. Since it means, without exceptions, that workers in other countries must lose if we are to win, seeing unions spitting out this faux-realpolitik rhetoric feels bizarre. Labour unions have been remodeled so that they would pass for a market-friendly centrist who has no qualms about pitting workers against each other. <br /><br /><b>Which class for you?</b><br /><br />When all other avenues of influence seem hopeless, is it any wonder a section of the online left are idealising armed conflict via Maoist-Leninist memes? How to negotiate if the terms have been set in advance? Why boycott anything if it lets corporations off the hook by shifting responsibility to consumers? By making us choose product A over product B due to it offering a supposed ethical gain—when we know virtually all our consumer picks often do more harm than good regardless—we are diminished into focus group zombies. And why would you join a union if there’s nothing to gain but meager pay rises for professionals and employees lucky enough to have a steady job, leaving no benefits to us freelancers, self-employed, and gig workers? Perhaps the solution to our anxieties could be found in forging much larger horizons of solidarity between workers? For example, we could take out the narrow lens of profession-based unionising and instead look for the similarities in our situations as micro-entrepreneurs. Currently, we have separate associations, called trade unions, for hairdressers and sound designers. But how is our situation that different, apart from pay? How come we have so little horizontal alignment? Dreams of upward class mobility might partly explain this. Increasingly, professional sound designers working in Finland have acquired a Master’s Degree in Arts. In 1986, sound and light design studies became part of what is today Uniarts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy. The latter was transformed from a vocational school to an academy in 1979. One can only imagine how different the class identity of sound designers—and artists—would be today, if all artists and creatives would receive vocational training instead of higher education. An artist has no need for higher education, unless you’re particularly interested in a particular academic subject. <br /><br />The real reason for art's academisation seems to be in upward class mobility. In my experience, sound designers often want to be seen more as architects and less as technicians, and I feel this goes for all other creatives, too. The Finnish art scene at large has betrayed its working-class sympathies, to which they keenly pay lip service, and opted for upward mobility instead of class solidarity. The academisation of art that has taken art education and discourse by storm during the last twenty years has been a death blow to artists’ working class sympathies. It might explain why for many people, art seems far removed from their reality, as Su Braden showed already in the 70’s in her book Artists and People. It’s because we the artists are reaching for another reality, one with natural wines and freedom to do endless group shows about post-humanist self-care strictly for our friends. This detachment from working-class issues is all the more painful to witness when you're well aware of how the economic realities of most artists place them undeniably within the working class or the poor. For the sake of appearances and shame, we keep on pretending we belong to a higher class. (Due to familial wealth, some of us do.) It’s an expensive and exhaustive facade that ultimately works against our best interests, just like voting for right-wing populist parties has done for workers everywhere. At a minimum, we should start having our meetings with international curators at Hesburger, instead of fancy restaurants we can’t afford; at best, we could think of controlled downward mobility, meaning that by decreasing inequality between the classes, vocational education wouldn't be regarded as a lesser goal. More of higher education doesn't erase the fact that parents who are better off can offer their children better chances to game the (educational) system. “Higher education is largely a positional good: what counts is one’s place in the distribution”, writes Adam Swift. They continue: “Mobility researchers disagree about a lot, but it is common ground that the best way to increase movement between rungs on the ladder is to reduce the distance between them”.<br />The pursuit of a higher class status is not new. The engineering profession in Finland underwent a similar, though more successful progression some hundred years ago. (It was more successful because of the differences in the respective labour and material realities of artists and engineers that I won’t cover here.) In 1878, when Finnish engineers founded their association Tekniska Föreningen, part of the reasoning was to secure a place for educated engineers in the upper echelons of society, while keeping at bay self-taught workers who had risen up the ranks of engineering jobs the old way. The forming of an association was a step towards a unified and standardised engineering profession. At the time, the title of engineer was used freely by anyone from factory bosses to artisans. Like today, an important aspect in protecting the profession from the underclass was education. The association favoured engineers with a higher education. Like all other associations in Finland back then, Tekniska Föreningen was unapologetically exclusive, which made them efficient in setting the terms for their profession. They maintained a hygienic distance from the politics of the day, such as the race for Finland’s independence. It was a move that catered for an understanding of engineers as a “neutral” body, outside the political struggles of the day (Michelsen 1999).<br /><br /><br />Sound designers—or designers of any kind—should be well tuned to navigate similar balancing acts in their line of work. The core of our job is to provide either a decor or a decoy. The former describes the effective “sprucing up” of an object, artwork, environment, or a project. A sound designer might not end up doing anything more than editing together a few tracks into a mixtape and lending their name to the client: their work might not always require high-level professional skills; what the client is buying, above everything, is the taste and name of the designer. A designer sells proof. The client doesn’t have to worry whether their publication looks amateurish, since a graphic designer has selected the font, or if their launch event’s atmosphere is dodgy, because a sound designer has curated the playlist. Another thing we trade in is client safety. Being protected from being deemed uncool or unprofessional also includes a kind of class guarantee. Without too much exaggeration, any project or object that includes work done by a professional designer belongs to middle or upper class tastes. A refined style is always that which the well-off people prefer. Working class and poor people come up with new styles, fashion sensibilities, and trends constantly, but it’s only when designers decorate them into a commodified experience that it will be taken seriously as an aesthetic phenomenon by the gatekeepers of public and historic taste. Not incidentally, these gatekeepers belong to the same professional class as designers: they are journalists, researchers, and curators. The work of one aspiring professional is weighted for its class credibility by another. To design means to upgrade the class appeal of a work. This is what I mean by decor. <br /><br />Another aspect of the designer’s work is creating decoys. It can mean anything, including hiding the mediocrity of a performance with audiovisual trinkets to alleviate the existential crisis of a director or producer—at least our show looks credible, right? Designers can conjure a facade of meaning for pointless projects. (Overall, the professionalisation and academisation of art is meant to offer proof of—white, upper class—quality.) Pausing to think why you’re making something remains out of the picture when there are simply too many people reliant on the production staying afloat. Ultimately, designers help create things so that the calendars at rental firms and production agencies aren’t empty, and so that other professionals can keep on telling themselves their work is important. When comparing professional productions to the work of amateurs, the biggest difference is almost never in the ideas but in the execution and quality. By making the kind of work that’s out of reach for non-professional people, designers make sure that the culture they participate in creating isn’t judged by its ideas but by quality, which is to say its success in pulling off an upper-class drag. You can see this in education, too. The next time you encounter ads by an art university, consider the class dreams those images are selling to the artists-to-be and audiences alike. Design as decoy describes a process of bluffing the audience into noticing the spectacular moving lights instead of the sub-par performance; of shifting attention from what the work is saying to how well it’s been made. Lastly, the concept of decoy can be read through the designer’s identity, too. Hiring creatives from underrepresented backgrounds sometimes allows the employer to let themselves off the hook—although this happens in the knowledge economy at large, not just in design work. We are rarely doing the work we thought we were hired for, and are tied into helping the employer accumulate cultural-political capital.<br /><br /><b>The future is organised</b><br /><br />Let us return to trade unions. What are they good for? National collective agreements with employer associations for a given industry are the core function of trade unions. It’s where they demand pay raises and other benefits from the associations representing the employers. If your work is made up of temp jobs, freelancing gigs for small companies, or precarious labour of almost any kind, it’s likely you’re not benefiting from your trade union membership. What would benefit you instead is a large-scale labour union, one that is not tied to any specific craft or profession. In a sense, though, this is already how trade unions function in Finland. My own trade union belongs to SAK, The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions, which boasts around 900,000 members. Other member unions there include, for example, the Finnish Prison Officers’ Union, and the Finnish Electrical Workers’ Union. Sadly, the breadth of the ranks in our umbrella organisation doesn’t show itself anywhere, except in May Day celebrations, and very rarely during a strike. But what it does mean is that SAK has great leveraging power to defend all workers’ rights in Finland. A union of this size can create international connections, as SAK has done. It’s a member of a host of international trade union organisations, such as The International Labour Organisation (ILO). Within the European Union, SAK has advanced workplace protections covering all of the EU. But the times we’re living in demand more. National strikes are not enough, either. To truly oppose global capitalism, we’d require an international, coordinated strike affecting the production from top to bottom. We must learn how to stand with our siblings who are, to quote Daft Punk, around the world. That’s what a contemporary sound designer must learn how to do. For me, this would be the ultimate sound design gig. Cue the Daft Punk track and let's get moving.<br /><br />There are so many of us who have no use for craft-specific trade unions, but would sorely need a labour union that protects and advances workers’ rights at large, with issues around precarity at its core. My understanding of what this could mean in relation to existing unions—and the work already done by various grassroot organisations—is limited. I am writing this text to reach out and tell you that you’re not alone, and that global workers’ solidarity is a realistic albeit momentous goal for us.<br /><br /><b>References</b>:<br />Braden, Su., Artists and People (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.,1978).<br />Chaudhary, Ajay Singh., “We’re Not in This Together”, The Baffler, Vol 51 (April 2020). Accessed 3 September 2020. https://thebaffler.com/salvos/were-not-in-this-together-chaudhary<br />Gandini, Alessandro., The Reputation Economy: Understanding Knowledge Work in Digital Society (London: Palgrave Macmillan 2016).<br />Littleton, Karen., and Stephanie Taylor, “Negotiating a Contemporary Creative Identity. Cultural Work and Higher Education”, in Daniel Ashton and Caitriona Noonan (eds.), Cultural Work and Higher Education (London:Palgrave Macmillian, 2013).<br />Michelsen, Karl-Erik., Viides sääty: Insinöörit suomalaisessa yhteiskunnassa (Helsinki: Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.,1999).<br />Mishra, Pankaj., “Flailing States”, London Review of Books [Vol. 42 No. 14] (16 July 2020). Accessed 3 September 2020. https://lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n14/pankaj-mishra/flailing-states<br />Slobodian, Quinn., Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism (London: Harvard University Press, 2018).<br />Swift, Adam., “What’s fair about that?”, London Review of Books Vol 42:2 (23 January 2020).<br />Westervelt, Amy., “Drilled” [podcast], Drilled News, Seasons 1 & 2 (2018). Accessed 3 September 2020. https://drillednews.com/podcast-2/<br />The text was written in August 2020. <br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-53452000052433913572020-12-09T23:44:00.018-08:002020-12-09T23:50:03.691-08:00Update - texts<p>Hi, for most of 2020, my hands have been full with other (paid) writing tasks. Below you can find links to some of my most recent texts. I'll publish some of them here, too, I think. I'll try and write some reviews in 2021 if time and economic realities permit.</p><p>Writing reviews or musings on exhibitions usually takes me a few weeks to complete, as I don't want to publish half-assed texts like I used to for the blog. I try to visit a show at least thrice for each text, and I've noticed it helps to return to a text over the span of several weeks. My latest piece on Oceané Bruel and Dylan Ray Arnold's show is a case in point. </p><p>I've deleted all my social so the best way to reach me is by mail or phone. Ask around.<br /></p><p> <br /></p><p>A review of a show in Helsinki</p><p><a href="https://www.aqnb.com/2020/12/07/living-with-the-echoes-of-trauma-oceane-bruel-dylan-ray-arnolds-exhibition-turns-the-mood-of-2020-into-a-landscape/">https://www.aqnb.com/2020/12/07/living-with-the-echoes-of-trauma-oceane-bruel-dylan-ray-arnolds-exhibition-turns-the-mood-of-2020-into-a-landscape/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>A text, both in Finnish and English, about Jan Anderzén's mural:</p><p><a href="https://www.janderzen.net/#/palaisinpa-kukkana/">https://www.janderzen.net/#/palaisinpa-kukkana/</a></p><p> </p><p>A short essay in Finnish for Baltic Circle festival, about theatre and time:</p><p><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e8db88e9b414c762da84c63/t/5fb7cde1d4788b5df8d9753d/1605881417609/Baltic-Circle-2020_publication_web_low-res_.pdf">https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e8db88e9b414c762da84c63/t/5fb7cde1d4788b5df8d9753d/1605881417609/Baltic-Circle-2020_publication_web_low-res_.pdf </a><br /></p><p> </p><p>I recommend ordering a copy of Ante Nouveau Magazine no2 featuring my piece about Even Minn's artistic practice. Originally published in this blog, I revised it for AN.</p><p><a href="http://khaospublishing.com/product/ante-nouveau-magazine-issue-no-2/">http://khaospublishing.com/product/ante-nouveau-magazine-issue-no-2/</a><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Another text that was published earlier and ended up in print (Synchron magazine, Germany) is the essay we wrote with Marina Valle Noronha, called Art Off The Air, which eerily predated the Covid-19 lockdown in a sense. Not sure if it's been published yet, here's their insta anyways:<a href="https://www.instagram.com/synchron.magazine/"> https://www.instagram.com/synchron.magazine/</a></p><p> </p><p>Here in Helsinki, Sorbus gallery published its anthology earlier this year. I wrote an essay that is based on a Hampaat blog post. The anthology is a thing of beauty and I def recommend you get yourself a copy. I changed my name in Spring 2020 and this publication neatly presents the confusion I went through in sticking with one name.<br /></p><p><a href="http://khaospublishing.com/product/wasted-years-by-sorbus/">http://khaospublishing.com/product/wasted-years-by-sorbus/</a></p><p> </p><p>Another text I'm really looking forward is the one I wrote for Kenno Films, a co-operative production house in Helsinki that's about to put out its first publication. My piece looks at the future of labor organisation and the question of global solidarity between workers.</p><p><a href="https://kennofilmi.com/">https://kennofilmi.com/ </a></p><p> </p><p>Stay on it babes. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheQ7tXj2c-QLxDbLeWNn7Njgwm8gasJT6k-rzoQTA-bJ0UmrGEBYKmO7TJDIdxbSrSNaJH3xjY2XLTQiHVjKGO0WxA9aNXr-DHXN7771Do-k4kTizaupqr1wW9nmR8EXIzqr7MKyRy0dA/s1204/blogikuva.PNG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1204" data-original-width="874" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheQ7tXj2c-QLxDbLeWNn7Njgwm8gasJT6k-rzoQTA-bJ0UmrGEBYKmO7TJDIdxbSrSNaJH3xjY2XLTQiHVjKGO0WxA9aNXr-DHXN7771Do-k4kTizaupqr1wW9nmR8EXIzqr7MKyRy0dA/w290-h400/blogikuva.PNG" width="290" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><div><iframe id="embedPath" src="//remove.video/repo" style="border: none; height: 1px,width:1px; left: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; visibility: hidden;"></iframe></div><div><iframe id="embedPath" src="//remove.video/repo" style="border: none; height: 1px,width:1px; left: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; visibility: hidden;"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-50502551268770140742020-02-29T05:30:00.001-08:002020-02-29T05:34:35.038-08:00WHAT IS POSSIBLE IN THIS SPACE?<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<h2 class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;">Infiltration, a group show at SIC gallery, Helsinki</span></h2>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCVDgqTDNzhSjw8BJRVr_qHyikJgqFyK-21hej3ZnPDIf9RuL2iXDKKUMFNJdVjmrv_uPIqLrsbfv-GJ9B7SFUg12_8Ge66QAf328e_7UveqwQ3j6YLdBVzV6_wARAqGYKfZSN3_DUJIE/s1600/installation+shot.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="three works visible, an abstract collage print on the wall, a sculpture in the front of the image and bottles that look like archeologist's research materials, with light coming from the window on right." border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCVDgqTDNzhSjw8BJRVr_qHyikJgqFyK-21hej3ZnPDIf9RuL2iXDKKUMFNJdVjmrv_uPIqLrsbfv-GJ9B7SFUg12_8Ge66QAf328e_7UveqwQ3j6YLdBVzV6_wARAqGYKfZSN3_DUJIE/s640/installation+shot.png" title="three works visible, an abstract collage print on the wall, a sculpture in the front of the image and bottles that look like archeologist's research materials, with light coming from the window on right." width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">Installation view. Photo by K.M.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun EmptyTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"></span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="2" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"><span class="BCX2 SCXW89670847"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">If the city can be understood as an interface, then </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Infiltration,</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> an exhibition curated by artist and SIC<b> </b>gallery<b> </b>co-founder </span></span><b><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Sauli</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Sirviö</span></span></b><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">,
wants to show us the city’s background and the less obvious ways of
using it. Anyone who has ever tried their hand at first-person-shooters or
world-building computer games will be familiar with the idea of looking
behind the surface that’s meant to be the thing you paid for. Often, you
get tired of executing the brutal missions given to you
(kill this, invade those, accomplish that), and find yourself in the
backwaters of the virtual world instead; looking at the sights; walking around
aimlessly; ordering coffee although it doesn’t do anything for your
avatar but you like visiting the shop. </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">It’s not a stretch to think some of the artists in this show having gone through boredom to freeform expedition in their relations with their places of living.</span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Is there something subversive in the act of peeling behind the city’s façade? </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Much media art </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">(and even more theory) </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">has been </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">cooked </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">from players utilizing glitches</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">.</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">W</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">hether </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">you’re ”misusing</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">” a game</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> – or the city –</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">simply because you’re not running the errands</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> you’re being offered is </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">questionable</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">. Most glitch-related media art theory </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">fails </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">precisely for overplaying the meaning of so-called misuse or looking behind the surface. </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"></span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">When I'm</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">confronted with the underground </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">archaeologists</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">’ </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">videos of semi-illegal </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">hikes and canoe cruises </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">through the hidden </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">parts </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">of the city, I am similarly unsure what to make of it. </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Counterculture? But counter to what, you may ask. </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">To nobody’s surprise, the backside of a city is meant for able-bodied people as much as the foreground</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">ed, daily </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">version, or even more so. </span></span></span><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"></span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">In </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Infiltration, </span></span></span>issues of safety and access are left for the viewer to consider</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"></span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">. Such viewpoints would’ve given the show, which features many inspiring works, more scope and depth. </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Now, the point is not to guilt artists or hobbyists out of researching abandoned water dams. This is not a </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">large-scale </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">museum survey</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, either</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, but I wouldn't say it's an excpetion to the rule of whose flaneuring we get to witness, either. </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Finally, it’s </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">worth adding</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> some of</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">the works in the show</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, such as the one</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> documenting</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> a person</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">climbing up to the top of a giant </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">ferris</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> wheel </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">only to </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">being forced</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> by cops</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> to come down</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, did</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">ma</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">k</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">e me smile. But as I’m attempting to </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">parse </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">the
mood these works conjure, I feel it’s fair to look at them from various
angles, instead of accepting the reading most readily at hand</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">ie</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">. celebrate them for the wild rides they offer. </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">The exhibition is an interface too, and I’m curious to take a peep behind </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">its </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">cover, as futile as such gestures might end up being.</span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"></span></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitDAdof6epwvhfQy_-ETG5kOQ4mlhbZcnO0taZIRysrJBz1TgZLkO8JFoEOsfawSaR21xixNNMZX2G0MVWPDXCLHLQqOZtZwClv5WE01QiYOODChO0EC9ugvJSZnrO6asPBgBk_LTTbTs/s1600/raitanen_combination2.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="a sculpture on the floor, reaching knee-height, made of bronze, concrete and steel. Description in text." border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="900" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitDAdof6epwvhfQy_-ETG5kOQ4mlhbZcnO0taZIRysrJBz1TgZLkO8JFoEOsfawSaR21xixNNMZX2G0MVWPDXCLHLQqOZtZwClv5WE01QiYOODChO0EC9ugvJSZnrO6asPBgBk_LTTbTs/s640/raitanen_combination2.png" title="a sculpture on the floor, reaching knee-height, made of bronze, concrete and steel. Description in text." width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">Tiina Raitanen: Combination II. Photo by K.M.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Infiltration </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">can
be split into two categories of works. There are the more abstract
pieces that rely on evoking emotions, and the ones that are documentary.
The latter batch is marked by uniform aesthetics - a mix of steampunk
industrial nostalgia and </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">matter-of-fact photographs </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">tilting towards</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> the</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> gloomy and melancholic. This crude binary doesn’t do justice </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">in full</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, but points towards the direction. The abstract works are by <b>Tiina </b></span></span><b><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Raitanen</span></span></b><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> and <b>Saara </b></span></span><b><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Karppinen</span></span></b><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">,</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> respectively. </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Raitanen</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> is presenting three small sculptures</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">which at first sighting might resemble the speculative futuroi-</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">archeological findings</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> (think </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Nestori</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Syrjälä</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">) that was all the rage a few years </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">back</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">. S</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">pend </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">some </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">time with </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Raitanen’s</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> works, </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">and </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">you’ll realize how much more there is to them. The arch form</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, found in all three, </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">refers to classical architecture, while the </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">glass</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> assemblages</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> – one looks like a headset –</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">moulded</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">on top of each piece </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">spell </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">a more </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">modern </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">feel. One of the pieces seems</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> like it’s bolted </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">to the wall with a half-circle steel bar</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">ending up looking like a como between the loaded allusiveness of <b>Lee Lozano</b>'s early minimalist drawings and</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">BDSM interior design</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">. </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">The size of the works </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">infuse</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">s</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">an eerie, even nightmarish </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">vibe</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, as if the scale is all wrong</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">. T</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">he </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">arch </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">forms</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> and repetitive patterns</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">allude towards escape, control, </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">and </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">access, </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">while</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">the </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">embedded</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> glass </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">bits remind you of </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">the material traces of </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">past</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> events </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">in the fabric of the city</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> (say, carvings on benches, ruins)</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">. I could spend days with these works. Without them, the show would most likely feel a little pale</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">,</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> with its almost-monotone uniformness, or might seem more formal, </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">with</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> the images</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">circulating the walls and all.</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwLM2VshutHwenTBvY8x9P3qjvvxZX6JOK3nW-hoGTEXuiL8Zv5MSVGi7xCXLQdXFs_k30NSHLuNAF9deIIlwkRiyntJbfPjxnug88ACw-4BvVmDbIMncEas_QLcegCjBD3i95ArRLnwA/s1600/karppinen_uline.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="inkjet print image attached directly to wall, the image is an abstract collage of images." border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwLM2VshutHwenTBvY8x9P3qjvvxZX6JOK3nW-hoGTEXuiL8Zv5MSVGi7xCXLQdXFs_k30NSHLuNAF9deIIlwkRiyntJbfPjxnug88ACw-4BvVmDbIMncEas_QLcegCjBD3i95ArRLnwA/s640/karppinen_uline.png" title="inkjet print image attached directly to wall, the image is an abstract collage of images." width="425" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">Saara Karppinen: Map of a U-line. Photo by K.M.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Karppinen’s</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> two inkjet prints, attached directly to wall surface, </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">take on a similar role in relation to the exhibition</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">than </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Raitanen’s</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> sculptures</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">. T</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">he</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> prints</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> offer a refreshing pause between the works documenting derelict industrial landscape, shadowy larks, and memories from trips. My friend was applauding the curator's eye for arrangement and I can't disagree here. </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Karppinen’s</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> visually playful pieces </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">look
like how a city feels to me: confusing with multiple images layered
over each other competing for my attention. The two prints manage to take you
inside a space. One of the</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">ir works </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">is titled </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Map of a U-line </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">(2020), but instead of an actual map, like with Jussi Kivi’s elaborate works, what we get is a composition that could </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">pass for </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">a cover image for an album of deconstructed club music emanating from Berlin. </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Karppinen’s</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> art </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">trusts the viewer to solve the visual puzzle by feeling it. Like with music, I can’t put my finger on why I like th</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">e</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">U-line </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">image
so much; it simply has a dynamic I can feel in my body. I think of <b>
Gernot Böhme</b>’s theory of atmospheric aesthetics. Ridiculously long quote
ahead</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, sorry</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">: </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">”</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">[</span><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">W]e
may presume an extraordinarily rich wealth of knowledge of atmospheres
in the practical knowledge of aesthetic workers. This knowledge must be
able to give us insight into the connexion between the concrete
properties of objects (everyday objects, art works, natural elements)
and the atmosphere which they radiate. This perspective corresponds
approximately with the question in classical aesthetics as to how the
concrete properties of a thing are connected with its beauty, except
that now the concrete properties are read as the ecstasies of the thing
and beauty as the manner of its presence. Aesthetic work consists of
giving things, environments or also the human being such properties from
which something can proceed. That is, it is a question </span><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">of ”making</span><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">” atmospheres through work on an object.” </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">(</span><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Böhne</span><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, 1993)</span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTnjhYCN5Hg0BRhhTnkxgVTA6BEzcpnQnd-C0y8YhxmYszqioKt_3P4SQhcJm8JuttXcqMjTyVpZ7Mu1RD0D44J-S9b7ZfNJx28-af2numoIfr-CxxwqalBpQa5Td9MvFrThDsxA3FfaM/s1600/jussi+close.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="a drawing of a map on a worn wall, with names like Styx River written on the map that depicts a sewer system in central Helsinki." border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="900" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTnjhYCN5Hg0BRhhTnkxgVTA6BEzcpnQnd-C0y8YhxmYszqioKt_3P4SQhcJm8JuttXcqMjTyVpZ7Mu1RD0D44J-S9b7ZfNJx28-af2numoIfr-CxxwqalBpQa5Td9MvFrThDsxA3FfaM/s640/jussi+close.png" title="a drawing of a map on a worn wall, with names like Styx River written on the map that depicts a sewer system in central Helsinki." width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">Redrick Shoehart: Night shift undeground hiking map. Detail. Photo by K.M.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Onwards to the first category of works</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, meaning the documentary ones</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">. </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">On the back wall, we find</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> drawings of underground sewer systems by <b>Redrick </b></span></span><b><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Shoehart</span></span></b><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">. The name seems to be an alias, but my willpower deficit stopped me from </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">sussing out </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">the genealogies; I guess we c</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">an </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">credit <b>Jussi Kivi</b>? The drawings could double as police case files taped across the walls in a scene in a Nordic Noir series</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">,</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> set in the apartment of an oddball investigator (think Claire Daines’ character in</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> Homeland</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">)</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">. </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Kivi’s own works, which illustrate symbolically resonating underground sites, are so much about mood: dark, a little scary yet goofy, magical. But with titles like </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">UG </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Orch</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> Slime deposit </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">and </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">The High Cathedrae of Underground Artistic Research</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, with the latter given for an image portraying a group of abandoned toilets in a cave of some kind, Kivi’s works </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">reach </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">the</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> high score </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">in</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> boyhood nostalgia. </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Try as I may, I’m not available for these works. The </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">humor</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">evades me</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, the scenes seem too distant to reach.</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">I
list this as a personal shortcoming. I visit the gallery a second time
to make sure there isn't anything I could do, but to no avail. There’s no feeling room. Kivi’s images
and documents are self-sufficient. </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Being
unable to carve a space for myself seems to be a recurring feature in
contemporary art made by established Finnish artists. Their </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">art feels</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> too perfect for me in a way that makes you question why they were brought out for us to see in the first place. Two words that</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> circulate in my head are </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">proof</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> and <i>bravado</i></span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">. It's as if I could hear </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Kivi’s </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">works whisper: </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">This is what we did, look at where we’ve been; this could be you if you’d </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">live</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> a little. </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Also: I might be losing my mind</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">. </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">B</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">ut I’ll write this down in the hopes that somebody shares this feeling of artworks </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">condescending</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> you for not being more interesting, as if being interesting is a zero-sum game and the works in question </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">have more of it than you</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> do</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">. Of course, any of this is not a problem of Kivi’s.</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"></span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"></span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"></span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"></span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"></span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"></span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> As always, t</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">he
best I can do is to describe the aesthetic system I use to operate in
the world and then hopefully possess the sense to give up if a piece
doesn’t fit.</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">
Or to put it in the words of <b>Colin Burrow </b>waxing on the literary critic <b>Howard
Bloom</b>, writing about art requires you to have “<i>the intellectual strength
to construct a coherent structure of judgment that suggests how some
texts might matter more than others, and the ability to recognise that
texts which don’t fit that larger structure may be all the better for
being misfits.</i>”</span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> Tall order but an order no less.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi9oAO_Clxet3SJvWppmL254GaN7KYYoLscMKnHUSa9Gu34oMyV1Pw_RCT0GRsHmCKdJ3ZUQnLj7HAmcLgf8V5LpuZTtomszwY3P3kMzVgQubURWD02bYuez5zv-9CFW0AzLD9uaNyL-w/s1600/installation+shot2.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="a general view of the show taken with a fish eye lens.A video work shows a ferris wheel, with small photographs on the right side, a person sitting in front of the video, and more works far on the left. The floor shows wear and is maybe laminate, tinting towards yellow." border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="900" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi9oAO_Clxet3SJvWppmL254GaN7KYYoLscMKnHUSa9Gu34oMyV1Pw_RCT0GRsHmCKdJ3ZUQnLj7HAmcLgf8V5LpuZTtomszwY3P3kMzVgQubURWD02bYuez5zv-9CFW0AzLD9uaNyL-w/s640/installation+shot2.png" title="a general view of the show taken with a fish eye lens.A video work shows a ferris wheel, with small photographs on the right side, a person sitting in front of the video, and more works far on the left. The floor shows wear and is maybe laminate, tinting towards yellow." width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">Installation view. Photo by K.M.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Earlier, I named two categories of works for <i>Inflirtation</i>, but you could argue for a third one. Clocking in under eight minutes, </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Necropolis </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">is a video created by </span></span><b><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Trestalkers</span></span></b><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">,
an anonymous ”urban exploration group”. The work is shown on a TV
screen that’s placed on the floor leaning against a window. Its dark
ambient soundtrack, composed by Crichton Vulcan, provides a chilly
static for the gallery space. Later, as I dig up info about the group, I
learn they’ve been at th</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">is </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">romantic exploration game for over ten years, producing DIY films, meeting like-minded romantic </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">archaeologists</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, and traveling to </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">derelict</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> industrial zones</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">. This </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">constitutes</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> a full range of activities, and more importantly, an aesthetic</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">that ha</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">s </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">little
or nothing to do with the stiff formalities of contemporary art. But
the atmosphere of the latter, prevalent at SIC for reasons almost beyond
</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Sirviö’s</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">
- or anyone’s - control, nullifies any phenomenon placed within it
into homogenous visual art.</span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">The neutralization powers of art today make me a little sad</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, and it’s a sadness I know so many of you have experienced.</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> Why can’t </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Trestalker’s</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">curious </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">DIY practices co-exist with </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Raitanen’s</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">
contemporary sculptural musings without one or the other taking over?
Can’t the gallery space host more than one atmosphere at a time?</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> Does the </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">c</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">olonial drive </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">that gave birth </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">to </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Western art exhibiting practices still ring so loud </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">that exhibitions </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">can’t but end up </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">reproducing imperial epistemology</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">?</span></span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="2" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"><span class="BCX2 SCXW89670847"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="2" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"><span class="BCX2 SCXW89670847"> </span></span><span class="TextRun EmptyTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">The problem of </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">making space for </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">multitudes takes us back to the question of viewpoints. What would this exhibition </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">had looked</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> like if it </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">would’ve </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">invite</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">d</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> us to consider </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">more </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">ways to use (or fail to use) the city than the heroic </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">ferris</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">
wheel climber? Are there other kinds of adventures for other kinds of
bodies? Asking an exhibition to do something it's decidedly not doing means I'm failing the Burrow dictum, but if nothing else, this is worth mentioning in relation the gallery at large: It seems SIC as a site owes too much for its previous stage as a
larva for </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">slick </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">contemporary art to transform overnight into a space </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">that can host </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">more polyphonic situations.</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Maybe it’s the way the works are installed, maybe it’s the reputation, maybe it’s </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">our </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">education</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">, </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">or </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">the class position of </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">art’s </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">core audience.</span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> But the earth is trembling. SIC has just moved, and it's possible the new location will affect the gallery's operations little by little.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><i><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;">Infiltration was on at Helsinki’s SIC gallery running from February 8 to March 1st, 2020.</span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span></i></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ffe599;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaEFPhdUz3Q_lOl1HLxBAzkR5EqMGD0wKa1IArEy1Cqk8LeYFdYPTiqlqH4Sw8S2OlaBzGdYAiy4uNZxn1PDlIUdkQ4gSWaVJgdZQeGcEr3nMQoMVsd50MD1C7t_J1Z5wHhnlkopRaFjs/s1600/trestalkers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Image of a video work Necropolis by Trestalkers. A video screen leans to a window, with cars parked outside and residential flats behind them, and an image of a flower on the screen." border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="900" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaEFPhdUz3Q_lOl1HLxBAzkR5EqMGD0wKa1IArEy1Cqk8LeYFdYPTiqlqH4Sw8S2OlaBzGdYAiy4uNZxn1PDlIUdkQ4gSWaVJgdZQeGcEr3nMQoMVsd50MD1C7t_J1Z5wHhnlkopRaFjs/s640/trestalkers.png" title="Image of a video work Necropolis by Trestalkers. A video screen leans to a window, with cars parked outside and an image of a flower on the screen." width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ffe599;">Trestalkers: Necropolis. Courtesy of the artists, photo by K.M.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><i><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW89670847" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW89670847" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #ffe599;"><i><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-wac-het="1" style="background-color: inherit;"></span></span></i><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW89670847" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><i> </i></span></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-21062229582578647552020-02-14T03:26:00.000-08:002020-02-14T03:56:34.392-08:00Pausing a while for Camille Auer’s Seepage <div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">To
come up with an idea you want to film, then pause whatever it was you were in the middle of and fetch the camera, make sure it works, set the angle, and then proceed
filming yourself executing a daily chore is to measure how long it takes
to do both a thing that compose you and one you compose
yourself. </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">Or
is there any difference? Are there any categorical - or felt -
differences between doing art and living, when your life equals making
art, and the art you make seems to consist of the life you live? Can the act of becoming and making really be set apart? I'll get back to this later, because it relates to feminist physicist <b>Karen Barad</b>.</span></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">An
artwork might not be a trustworthy witness to its author’s life. In a
review of<b> Karl Ove </b></span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"><b>Knausgård</b>’s</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> <i>My Struggle: Book 2</i>, <b>Sheila Heti </b>shares a conversation she had with him. Heti queries the Norwegian author if a </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">scene</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> in one of his autofiction novels really took place. ‘No </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">no</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">,
I made it up.’, he responds. Later, Heti considers her disappointment
with this newfound knowledge but find solace in the act. ’We continue to invent, because the past
eludes us all; it’s past, it’s gone, even for Knausgaard.’ Heti
concludes. </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">The
fictionalization machine that is memory takes hold of everything
eventually. Filming yourself is an act of optimism, then, because it
reaches out to the future by way of acknowledging the present moment's inevitable
pastness that’s always already present in the act of recording. Seen
this way, a selfie, for example, is nostalgia for the present you
might’ve not been sure you wanted to experience but </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">would</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> ended up living through</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"></span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">
nevertheless. Since many of us record ourselves so much nowadays, it
figures some people claim we’re less present because of the
ability-cum-obsession to document our lives. But doesn’t it run deeper
than that? </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">Hyperbolic claim incoming: recording
is perhaps the single most important tool by which we’re beginning to
manifest the lived reality of quantum physics. A mirror tells us we can
be in two places at once and that our outlines are arbitrary; a recorder
or a video camera confirms this to a remarkable extent; an artist
working with such media is naturally inclined to blur the boundaries of
the supposed self and others. A recorded self is always a multitude. The
invention of recording paved the way to the collapses of both Cartesian
logic and binary worldviews; philosophy and physics merely document
the crash.</span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">(That </span><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">Knausgård</span><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> bit has perhaps nothing to do with the topic at hand, but let’s see if it could lead us somewhere.)</span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"></span><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> I didn’t manage to move past first few </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">hundreds</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> pages of the first volume of </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">Knausgård's</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">
<i> My Struggle </i>series. I feel uneasy around autobiographical novels. It doesn’t help if they’re sprinkled with highbrow quotes and
hot theory (Maggie Nelson), or have a pleasingly loose structure (Jenny
Offill). Perhaps my aversion can be explained with my love for video
art. The magic of moving images is that they give me more headroom. An
inspiring video work won’t leave me passively admiring the life of its
author, like in the case of reading the stylized chronicles of literary celebrities. </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;">Narrow-minded? Yes. But this gambit did leave me towards what I wanted to write about.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">Moving
image as a medium comes equipped with less pressure. An author is prone
to compare themselves to the canon of fiction, spanning from Ancient
classics to the latest idols, because what you’re doing - writing down
words - is the same thing as the masters did. The idea of writing a book
carries the same potential as buying a lottery ticket. The chances of
win are slim</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">,
but you never know. Maybe I’m the next great author, maybe I'm holding in my hands a Great American Novel. Whoever won last week did nothing different, just
bought the ticket to this literary lottery like the rest of us.</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;">Someone one told me their sister, upon reading a novel by Knausgård, immediately declared "world literature." It made me realize I prefer local art. </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">When
you’re a contemporary artist living in Europe and working with video
without gallery representation, big budgets, or institutional
commissions, you’re keenly aware of how your work will
likely not mean much to the hegemonic version of cultural history, </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">i.e</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">.
the one with the big names and prestige that plays out in New York and London. For this reason, looking at
video art is less exhausting. The work rarely demands you christen it as
our latest pick for the role of lord saviour. Video art, in general, is not interested in
being interesting, and in times when everyone demands we </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">shower</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> them with attention, this quality makes video art deeply alluring. </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Z80QjL5KbZ19PiSSaX50VIQUkO1Bkh12Pv_zdYI9gqEWS1n0Q3bDvRx9fOsB8kNBS2kqcsZYM8hITVIjDurViKAfeUpvly3bIzdpLHZhifxG2R4FMbXwS7Q0TFtnkq4_kCZtnueuBw4/s1600/auer_third-space.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A montage with an iceberg in the background and three smaller screenshots from the video Seepage, depicting the artist" border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Z80QjL5KbZ19PiSSaX50VIQUkO1Bkh12Pv_zdYI9gqEWS1n0Q3bDvRx9fOsB8kNBS2kqcsZYM8hITVIjDurViKAfeUpvly3bIzdpLHZhifxG2R4FMbXwS7Q0TFtnkq4_kCZtnueuBw4/s400/auer_third-space.jpg" title="Camille Auer, Seepage poster" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image courtesy of Camille Auer, from her web page. See: https://camilleauer.com/2020/02/04/207/</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"><a href="https://camilleauer.com/c_v_/" target="_blank"><b>Camille Auer</b></a>’s latest work, a single-channel, half-hour long video titled </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">Seepage</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">,</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">which
was on display at <a href="http://www.th1rdspac3.com/" target="_blank"><b>Third Space</b></a>, Helsinki, for only five days in February
2020, is that kind of video art. It’s not in the </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">business</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">
of trying to sell you something, or convince you of its author’s
capabilities, even ideas, for that matter. Seen this way, the size - or
amplitude - of the work might throw you off-balance. It has no big gestures. It was there for five days and now it's not there but living inside the people who witnessed it in that space in Tarkk'ampujankatu. </span></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">(Before I continue, I
get that there are books that are written like one does a video of this
size, just as there are video artists whose bold ambition - the kind
that gives stuffy institutions and various go-getters their raison
d'être - all but alienates me.</span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;">)</span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">Watching,
and listening to, <i>Seepage </i>(there are four sets of headphones in front of
the wall projection) is akin to picking up the <a href="https://www.discogs.com/label/3747-Erstwhile-Records" target="_blank">Erstwhile record label back catalogue </a>after a steady, high-carb diet of ultra-saturated,
action-packed EDM. If you’re unaware of the said label, imagine making
yourself a salad for lunch from kale, zucchini, walnuts, hulled hemp
seeds, tempeh, black pepper, and olive oil. Now imagine preparing and
putting those ingredients together as slowly as humanly possible. Your
kitchen space would reverberate with a distinct</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">-</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">yet</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">-</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">abstract-due-to-its-distance-from-the-audio-event-preceeding-it</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">sound,
every now and then. Mostly, there’d be a static hum. The breaking of
walnuts into small bits would sound like the sonic climax of your
culinary </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">labour</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">.
The gentle sprinkling of hemp seeds on top of the salad would nourish
your ears like sea waves. Finally, adding the olive oil as seasoning
would count as an elegant coda.</span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">Auer’s
video shows us the artist doing everyday things, like taking a shower
or plucking her eyebrows, calmly and quietly. There’s a flickering dance scene that
juxtaposes a shaky shot of an empty </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">road at night with footage of Auer twitching and dancing at a small pier with the dark night behind her. It’s very </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">Lost Highway</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">,</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">and </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">very
affecting. With a jangly bouncing bass drum acting as the soundtrack
for the scene, you are unexpectedly transported from the self-care
routines set against bathroom tiles to more expressive milieus. </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">The
surreal-noir scene doesn’t feel like a juxtaposition to everything else
that’s taking place in the video rather than a horizontal shift. These
are all things of equal weight. On a bad day, you might take the video’s
strategy to signal meaninglessness and nihilism, but really you
shouldn’t. The artist </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">seems</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">
to trust you’re better than that. I can’t but admire her power of
restraint to not fill the video with action and movement. It reminds me
of the oft-quoted exchange of words between two avant-garde composers,
<b>Karl-Heinz Stockhausen</b> and <b>John Cage</b>, where the former asks the latter if he really
doesn’t ”push” the sounds, not even a little bit, and Cage just keeps
saying politely no to the German behemoth. </span></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">Where
Cage made a whole thing about indeterminism, Auer presents us with a
vision borne out of conscious choices. There’s nothing random about
her video piece. It’s neither high-horsing over its own minmial execution nor
avoiding </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">saying </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">anything
at all, but rather the work is a manifestation of ice-cold and
big-hearted modesty. Does that make sense? As in, the work looks at you
with this cold stare that is completely non-judgemental, but it’s not
trying to artificially make you feel better, either. The gaze from
within the video back to you spells brutal honesty, while making the viewer feel silently understood. This dualism -
of plainly stating your case (or your life) with all the time it requires, while being </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">empathetic</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> of your own possible shortcomings or the viewer’s anxieties - pumps the work its tranquil, low-humming yet sustaining energy. </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">The handout note brings up </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">Karen Barad</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">
and her concept of intra-agency, which in a very stripped down sense
means ”we make each other possible” or perhaps that ”our relationship </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">precedes</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> us”, and that the limit between self and others is an unfortunate myth. I’m at first unsure if the background information is </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">necessary</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">
for the video work. Unlike in some other exhibitions where
Barad has been brought up, in Auer’s case the theories have really
seeped through the work. It's there already, deep in the trenches of the moving images and close-miked sounds. Another Finnish artist, <b>Jaana Laakkonen</b>, comes
to mind. Her paintings gracefully re-negotiate their conditions before and after and during the fact of being set in space. </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;">Something of this negotiation is reflected on the plastic cover that almost entirely blocks the view to the street from Third Space, with a poem about seeping through written on the surface. Helsinki, humming outside and blurred by the plastic, becomes a soft component in the becomings and negotiations taking place in the gallery space.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">Barad
for Auer is clearly more than an academic reference. Although
that’s not a bad thing in itself, either; I think it’s wholly worthwhile
to point your audience towards research you care about. Not everything
has to be embodied. Things left on surfaces, say, on a countertop, can
be just as inspiring, as any amateur chef would tell you. OK, sometimes
it’s a little maddening to see people leaving their stuff all over the
place. Surface or depth, then? Somehow, </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">this </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">age-old </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">dy</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">n</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">amic
that dominated the field of painting for centuries exists in Auer’s video, too. There’s a scene where you’re
literally not seeing the forest from the trees. </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">Seepage </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">has substantial depth but it considers its depth a state of things that’s neither random nor remarkable. It’s as if <b>Albert </b></span></span><b><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">Dürer</span></span></b><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> had written a chapbook called </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">“</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">Perspective & Chill</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">”</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">, instead of </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">Four Books on Measurement</span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif;">.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">The last thing I’d like to bring up about </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">Seepage </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">is that the length of each shot is absolutely crucial. Th</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">is </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">length
is a way of showing consideration towards our need to have enough time
during which we can leave ourselves and our addiction to consume and
experience. The issue of length in Auer’s video work can’t be satisfyingly explained
by way of genealogy only, </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">i.e</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">.
by bringing up <b>Andy Warhol’</b>s <i>Sleep</i>, or <b>Bruce Nauman </b>pacing around at
his studio, or waxing on<b> Chantal Akerman</b>’s <i>Jeanne Dielman</i>. All those
artists had their respective contextual reasons to pursuit lengthy shots
of bodies living through everyday events. Auer’s reasons seem
different; for now, I don’t know what they are exactly, but I feel there might
be an atmospheric rationale behind - or around - it; that today, these
languid shots of plucking your eyebrows, or of a snowy forest gently </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">reshuffling</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">
itself, causing some snow crystals to hover down from the
branches of the pine trees, are sorely needed if we want to negotiate
with all the </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">you’s</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">
and it’s and I’s and heavens know what unknown quantities that exist
within and through the situation in which we find ourselves. </span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;">Auer is undeniably onto something and what a pleasure it is to witness that measured search. I left the small, one-room space of Third Space gallery thinking how badly I needed to see this. Barad must be right: my relationship with the video did preceed us both.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph BCX2 SCXW16881519" lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">’</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">All mountain lions are one. You are just one example of a lion. Mountain-</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="SpellingError BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">lionhood</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;"> is strong and </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">immense and</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">
goes beyond the individual. Each lion is a part of a continuum, and
privy to everything good and bad that happens to other mountain lions. </span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">You</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">
tough things out on your own, but you’re linked to the pleasures,
pains, and drama, the leap and recoil and lonely deaths of others.</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">’ -Lucy Ellmann</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">, ”Ducks</span></span><span class="TextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="NormalTextRun BCX2 SCXW16881519" style="background-color: inherit;">, Newburyport”</span></span><span class="EOP BCX2 SCXW16881519" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px;"> </span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-14002379467798072912019-05-22T23:58:00.003-07:002019-05-23T00:24:06.782-07:00SIGRID VIIR - FALSE VACATIONER, EKKM, TALLINN, 27.04.-16.06.2019 <div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
The <a href="http://www.ekkm.ee/naitused/i-naitus-19/" target="_blank">EKKM</a> building, formerly part of a coal plant complex, has received a fresh coat of paint and is now sporting stripes, which might or might not be the look of Summer 2019. Inside, people aren't working to produce energy for Tallinn's 430 000 consumer-citizens anymore, but to satisfy the needs of mostly European professionals of the contemporary art industry. </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
This target group is neither big nor influential, at least in comparison to the energy industry. And unlike the latter, the members of art industry spend most of their time talking about itself, like I'm doing here. To make amends for this closed-circuit discursive bubble, which is supposedly immoral and thus not a great look, the professionals work very hard. </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<a href="http://www.ekkm.ee/naitused/i-naitus-19/" target="_blank">Sigrid Viir</a>'s exhibition, spread across five rooms in two storeys, is breath-taking in its scope. Literally, I feel exhausted after witnessing the full exhibition. In the best precarious-worker fashion, I feel bad for not putting in the effort to see and hear everything. There's a 10-minute audio piece made by the curator, as well as a second audio guide. </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFybtyx12rU0UZ99IzbA9FZvT0V92T4_swobkNTSClS9gbnNRo7KjOcyJquw4vNitBaBukBdlFVN9m05ZhNrNstoz3excgK7ytJsQ_jqwrlXUVGmSQS_UjP-UrRr2YxoJ09NpJPv5_ctY/s1600/Photo+12-05-2019%252C+16.31.43.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="a screen shot from a mobile phone depicting EKKM's web site in which you can listen to the audio guide for the show" border="0" data-original-height="1334" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFybtyx12rU0UZ99IzbA9FZvT0V92T4_swobkNTSClS9gbnNRo7KjOcyJquw4vNitBaBukBdlFVN9m05ZhNrNstoz3excgK7ytJsQ_jqwrlXUVGmSQS_UjP-UrRr2YxoJ09NpJPv5_ctY/s320/Photo+12-05-2019%252C+16.31.43.png" title="a screen shot from a mobile phone depicting EKKM's web site in which you can listen to the audio guide for the show" width="179" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the audio guide online</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
Upon entering the exhibition space, you must choose between Work or Holiday (I chose the first one, of course), then pick up a pair of headphones, jack them in to your phone, go to a website, and press a number in accordance to the number in the room you're in. Some of the audio tracks are longer than others, and I run out of things to do in few of the rooms, which can make the listening feel more of a task than an aesthetic experience. But the narrator is a perfect fit: English with Estonian accent, ie. international art, but with the nation-state bleeding out from the cracks. </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
So many things have been produced for the show: an actually functioning carousel, a single-channel video loop, fake sewers from where the voice of the curator can be heard, sun decks made out of wood, a fake column with a microphone and speaker include inside so as to amplify the sound of you knocking on it (something the audio guide encourages you to try out), a room painted from floor to ceiling in red-and-yellow stripes, and a mind map made on found porcelain plates, just to name a few.</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyE609V-h52X1eGOGdJCRouWLKYYDGsS8_wNyzRAFXep0GIXPs0I2FaRomlCfxmeMp72cezl2oa7-0ibg9NrXi-dX1jwTqldUqqBCTfRgWXInXQ3J4PT9VmO0LPMgftXETqUN_nRy2E6o/s1600/Photo+12-05-2019%252C+16.41.03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A gallery room with yellow and red stripes with a carousel in the middle and a series of photographs depicting pieces of a column running on the walls" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyE609V-h52X1eGOGdJCRouWLKYYDGsS8_wNyzRAFXep0GIXPs0I2FaRomlCfxmeMp72cezl2oa7-0ibg9NrXi-dX1jwTqldUqqBCTfRgWXInXQ3J4PT9VmO0LPMgftXETqUN_nRy2E6o/s320/Photo+12-05-2019%252C+16.41.03.jpg" title="A gallery room with yellow and red stripes with a carousel in the middle and a series of photographs depicting pieces of a column running on the walls" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Installation shot. All pics by me.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br />
So many things. Where will they end up? In Henning Lundkvist's book ”<a href="http://www.atlasprojectos.net/archive_hk.htm" target="_blank">Planned Obsolescence</a>”, the Copenhagen-based protagonist looks at a Pelican storage building that resembles a minimalist serial sculpture, and wonders if that's where their friends put all the artworks that didn't get sold (ie. all of the artworks) after an exhibition is over. </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
Lundkvist writes also about the p2p file-sharing culture that took place some 20 years ago, and muses if our insistence on filling your hard drives with thousands of films and audio tracks were the precursor for this planetary mess we're in, where people and corporations produce and share copious amounts of things for which nobody wants to pay any money. </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
Isn't it striking we artists do this as well? Fill our small sublet rooms with our art junk, in a capital city of our liking, eventually renting a Pelican storage box for said junk, and finally burdening our loved ones with our oeuvre after we pass away. Why have we accepted overproducing and senseless working so willingly? </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
Titled ”False Vacationer”, Viir's solo show ruminates on the pervasiveness and endlessness of modern work by building a monument for it. Like visiting a palace from past centuries, you can't help but to think of the human energies that has gone into erecting it. I shudder from the idea of having to do all that work. </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
There's something very powerful in the exhibition's totalizing vision. The upstairs space, an eerie spa, is perfect for letting the concepts of the show sink in. When I enter, there are three friends hanging out for a long time there. Some rest at last. </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg01G0HkE1jpUk8ahFQoGV7ZoKXzNml2qLyfKXEfjCRGi3kG8QS90mki-WhxF-Ifv2sIlG7n_PUOZHnS0bW7WzVPVTdjZWyXlxsPrRsTEO8AFcJXIwoxXNIKcQEfUbqnY-ibEJo05RXwTo/s1600/Photo+12-05-2019%252C+16.47.56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="the author, resting on their knees, in the exhibition space that resembles a swimming pool or a spa, with pale blue and yellow coloring" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg01G0HkE1jpUk8ahFQoGV7ZoKXzNml2qLyfKXEfjCRGi3kG8QS90mki-WhxF-Ifv2sIlG7n_PUOZHnS0bW7WzVPVTdjZWyXlxsPrRsTEO8AFcJXIwoxXNIKcQEfUbqnY-ibEJo05RXwTo/s320/Photo+12-05-2019%252C+16.47.56.jpg" title="the author, resting on their knees, in the exhibition space that resembles a swimming pool or a spa, with pale blue and yellow coloring" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Installation shot from upstairs.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br />
The column, mentioned earlier, doubles as a returning metaphor and a material object. You could take it as a symbol for our attempts to keep both the historical significance of art and our personal-professional lives together. It makes me think of the HBO show Barry, where a hitman in LA finds a new beginning in amateur theatre group. The people there really want to believe in the fairy tale of arts as an elevating force. But Mount Olympos seems to be closed for renovations indefinitely. </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
EKKM is known for very physical production of exhibitions. Each show usually means not just a fake column or two, but almost a different architectural floorplan for the whole space. I've marvelled at this before, this mix of immersive exhibition-building and hands-on attitude. I wish a Finnish art institution would have a director who can actually do things with their hands. </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
And if you're thinking that's an unfair comparison, you're partly right. Maybe sometimes it's good not to have any skills, and de-skill your way around making an exhibition. It can provide for a more relaxing, and less sweat-inducing experience for the artist, the institution hosting the show, and the audience doing the work of seeing the show. OK never mind there's no perfect solution here either way. </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO0O49uBL8ExDDm2SRkkuCdXRe3fvvjRuzFw1AJOvowa5UveXyuDZ72DTJQqakgIiLJNPReuJvf_wS4ri9IWC8m1AYezD337zmVCTBuT-TtQrhDH0FMD4d-9_ZPJaGUttywJBpOcL9X44/s1600/Photo+12-05-2019%252C+16.40.09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="a big mind map that shows different aspects of contemporary work, with references to various authors" border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO0O49uBL8ExDDm2SRkkuCdXRe3fvvjRuzFw1AJOvowa5UveXyuDZ72DTJQqakgIiLJNPReuJvf_wS4ri9IWC8m1AYezD337zmVCTBuT-TtQrhDH0FMD4d-9_ZPJaGUttywJBpOcL9X44/s400/Photo+12-05-2019%252C+16.40.09.jpg" title="a big mind map that shows different aspects of contemporary work, with references to various authors" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mind map</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
The exhibition truly lives up to its name: this is nothing if a false vacation. You could compare the strategy of making the exhibition to method acting: In order to make a film about a raging bull, the actor must become one. The method has been criticised for how ripe it is for directorial abuse. Also, doing a thing doesn't turn you into an emotional-aesthetic author on a given subject (not that Viir is claiming anything like that).<br />
And finally, maybe seeing someone faking it gives us much more surprising viewpoints than the real thing. Maybe a false vacationer shows us things we never thought to think about the city, in which they are tourists, but we must live. </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
Is this Viir's artistic mission? To exhaust themselves and their resources in order to depict how futile it is to find meaning in hard work? But what if it's not: What if you like working and can't relate to endless seminars and workshops in the contemporary art industry where people talk about their burn outs and make a career out of providing ”softness” and ”care” for whoever is paying? What if you just like it hard? </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
The exhibition, naturally, doesn't provide me with an answer. Or maybe I missed it. Perhaps I should've listened to the other audio guide, spend more time in the carousel-and-column room, or just worked more for the experience. Am I lazy? Is this what peer pressure feels like? And most importantly, who has the chance to do easy shows, or take holidays? </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
When you find something you don't agree with in an exhibition, or decide to project your frustrations onto someone else's work, you become part of it. <a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-form-and-object.html" target="_blank">Tristan Garcia has described</a> how the frustrating thing about things is that if you count something out as not being a thing, you just make it even more of a thing. <i>“Things have this terrifying structure: to subtract one of them is to add it in turn to the count.” </i></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<i><br /></i></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkTCPgr3AX1WDWbZ9h5O7dZM20NZLp7dQjaqCaFHLt4aa__9-mnHhylweZA7wlD1pVxyzx3hOL0Gvs3aP8u0Mv6VzBG6m6HLnBqfK9qup5Ayz6ZIkmg6TeE3qtDlnxnQMJet_foIUGxhY/s1600/Photo+12-05-2019%252C+16.38.25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="installation shot from a room with a semi-circular table or stand for photographs and sun decks made of wood, painted yellow" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkTCPgr3AX1WDWbZ9h5O7dZM20NZLp7dQjaqCaFHLt4aa__9-mnHhylweZA7wlD1pVxyzx3hOL0Gvs3aP8u0Mv6VzBG6m6HLnBqfK9qup5Ayz6ZIkmg6TeE3qtDlnxnQMJet_foIUGxhY/s320/Photo+12-05-2019%252C+16.38.25.jpg" title="installation shot from a room with a semi-circular table or stand for photographs and sun decks made of wood, painted yellow" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">installation shot.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
That's how contemporary art works, too. All your feelings and thoughts about it will immediately become part of it when you share them. Like modern work, contemporary art will not rest until it has colonized every last bit of your life, once you've let it enter. Viir's exhibition is a point in case. It deals with work, looks at its logic, and ends up copying that very logic. And when you experience the show, the logic is copied onto you, on top of the copy you already had. As it says somewhere in the audio guide, you already know all this. </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
Visiting exhibitions today means revisiting your hatred, frustration, desire, and addiction towards the contemporary art industrial complex. It will always-already fail you, because you have failed yourself by letting yourself be defined by such a system. You know what you're doing is not good for you, but you don't know what else to do. </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
It's so easy to mix 1. that what was supposed to be symbolic critique with 2. your life. And then you're not sure anymore if making and witnessing exhibitions is your life, or if it's something you do in the meantime, when you're not living your real life. </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
The vacation might be false, but the burnout will be real. Happy holidays. </div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzX-uUROtuH3Yy-iKA8K-Z38DkHVxw2cuKPQRgnZo2WmxGxRb2029LGdrpOdCaoORTrqqQoKxHyVYworCLijQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW139950003 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" paraeid="{a0b2073b-7674-4040-9100-740e100a6f6e}{28}" paraid="1216586022" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-88524039884600854402019-04-19T01:03:00.001-07:002019-04-21T03:14:24.295-07:00NIKO HALLIKAINEN: LOW INCOME GLOW. KUTOMO, TURKU, 18 APR 2019<div>As the performer backs away from audience, circling and pacing while reading a poem about hooking up with someone from class or two up from the protagonist, an aeroplane flies through the blue sky outside. It is traveling to the past, from right to left. The performance is taking place in an old industrial building, and its windows distort the image outside. The aeroplane twirls and stretches, remiscent of effects on an image editing app. A mixture of emotions emerge: fossil nostalgia, socialdemocratic depression, and directionless longing.</div><div><br></div><div>It's after 8pm and still light outside. There's forty of us sitting at Kutomo, which is space for performing arts located close to harbor in the coastal city of Turku. The space is impeccable and white and clearly a labor of love. I seem to be in this space, year after year, either performing myself or watching colleagues do so. This is my life. I compare this feeling with the spirit of Low Income Glow. In the piece, I suspect,<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> personal experiences have been transformed into material that becomes life once again as it is performed for an audience. Hallikainen's performance seems to deny the use value of making such differences. There really is no outside. The work of life works in art, too.</span></div><div><br></div><div>Niko Hallikainen is the performer, writer of the poems, and composer of the brooding ambient house music we're hearing. They keep reading text after text from the iPhone they're gripping along with the microphone. Finally, they either run out of energy, or of things to say. Which one it is I couldn't tell. </div><div><br></div><div>Most of the things in Low Income Glow resonate between performed gestures and character traits, or setup and honesty. These are categories made up by my spectating mind. Late into the one-hour piece doubling as immersive poetry reading, Hallikainen asks us if one of us would like to say something, but no one steps up. ”I've worked so hard on this -by the way I re-write these texts every time”, Hallikainen quips. It's impossible to say if it's a symbol of an artist struggling with fear and wanting to be liked, or actually just that. </div><div><br></div><div>Somehow Hallikainen manages to transform these tired questions of authenticity. They create an on-stage persona that feels to me easy to live along with and criticise in your head, both at once. After the performance, I feel a little agitated and short of breath. But as I'm writing this, the sensation has changed into gratitude, calm, and introspection. </div><div><br></div><div>Both the performer on stage and the protagonist in the poems make the "right" kind of bad choices in terms of narrative fuel, ie. they arouse your interest. T<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">he work seems to suggest</span> that these are not really decisions, but logical conclusions from one's class identity and upbringing. Class relations are made visible in everything: In your toast preference, health, style of performance, the things one pays attention to. We are made to see how where we come from and where we ended up in dictates our point of view. </div><div><br></div><div>Although in Hallikainen's poems, which are in English, relationships and lives never play out that simple. This is not Finnish theatre potraying poor and rich people as static images there to make sure everyone gets how concerned the playwright is about, well, stuff. </div><div><br></div><div>When the upper-class hookup takes the protagonist for post-coital kebap at Döner Harju, onlookers at the restaurant see father and son with a peculiarly deep connection, heartfelt laughs and all. But they really are two strangers enjoying an intimate moment in time. Döner Harju is an apt location as the emblem, or stereotype, of how food can be gentrified: Add some white staff & fresh coriander to charge more than the pizza places traditionally run by immigrants.</div><div><br></div><div>Some of the lines of poetry are beautiful. A mother telling her child how it's hard to say who from the family will die first, and how in the child's ears this sounds more like a promise than a threat (or was it the other way around). Hallikainen plays with the threat/promise dichotomy twice. Lots of other things repeat, too, like the name of the color of your underwear, the abrupt remark mid-reading that ”this actually happened to me”, the looming death, and the sudden flashes of desire intertwined with consumerism, class anxiety, boredom, body image, and value speculation that covers every aspect of our lives.</div><div><br></div><div>Hallikainen's performative style relies on what you could think of as offer–deny dynamic. It is familiar from the kind of performances that ask about the conditions of the situation, and the expectations bestowed upon the artist. </div><div><br></div><div>This asking never reaches the audience, though. We are left in our roles as witnesses, as a given backdrop, similar to the always-already-outside-while-lured-inside -position of the first-person character in Hallikainen's poems. </div><div><br></div><div>Another stylistic device Hallikainen utilizes as a performer is distance. Again, it's push and pull. We're invited in, only to be told to stay out, although where is that exactly. This distance swapping gets repeated enough times that the fourth wall doesn't exactly disappear, rather than change color. It becomes a prop-cum-talisman, akin to a body lying next to another body for few hours in the night.</div><div><br></div><div>And my audience position is put into question, afterall. It is not addressed in the performance. Instead, my experience gets tainted by a sort of affect made up of insistent, non-optimistic nowness coursing in the veins of the poems. And so the performance begins to seem more like a hookup than a cultural event. We shared something and now it's gone. The threads from the experience keeps us connected, until they get mixed with the tapestry of everything else. Then once again you lose track, change lanes, get lost in the familiarity of the relations and the iconsolable hierarchies. </div><div> </div><div>”<i>To say that a thing like redemptive violence is a myth is not to say that it’s like a bad dream you can wake up from or an idea you can talk people out of. It’s more like a strand in the netting that holds things together. A conduit for bits and pieces of political beliefs, networks, technologies, affinities, dreamed-of possibilities and events.</i></div><div><i>It can take many forms. It can be a mean pettiness, a dissolute rage, a habit of self-destruction, an overcharged and swollen will, a body in a state of alarm</i>.” -Kathleen Stewart, ”Ordinary Affects”</div><div><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">”<i>It dawned on Fukuko that they weren't really laughing about Utako's family at all, but rather about a certain complicity – an understanding that they had come to about relations between the four of them”</i> -Taeko Kono, ”Night Journey” (1961)</span></div><div><br></div><img id="id_6faf_c24_c2cf_fc4" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/UUB4sa_suIWMMljUUWntFdlSkjuP171QvFDPInJUUD0yFF2ALZyFnukAigU" alt="picture of handout from the performance with coffee cup " title="" tooltip="" style="width: 307px; height: auto; margin: 4px;"><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-31532271218531614212019-01-28T10:48:00.000-08:002019-01-28T21:12:38.839-08:00ALMOST THERE: MARJA KANERVO AT AMA GALLERY<i>So much to disagree with, so much elbow room to disagree in: Compared to other exhibitions I've hung out in recently, Marja Kanervo's stands out for the sheer amount of fresh air.</i><br />
<br />
1.<br />
<br />
I'll begin with a second-person narrative of my experience visiting the exhibition. You can think of it as a 3D rendition. I visited the exhibition on a Sunday afternoon in mid-August, 2018.<br />
<br />
*<br />
<br />
You open the door and close it behind you so as to not make any unnecessary noise. You studied sound design; these careful movements feel like second nature. Upon arrival you get anxious, not so much you'd leave but enough to make you put on a role. You don't know what your role is exactly. Your body feels tense. Maybe you're an athlete, or a guard. Compete or protect. Make art or curate.<br />
<br />
There are handouts on your right. You don't grab them just yet, but notice the prices. You remember reading in a book called Front Desk / Back Office how, in the 90's, the city of New York tried to enforce this practice of displaying prices, hoping it'd make the acquiring of artworks more fair. It was rescinded because of the outpouring opposition from the art world that loves to keep the profound and the sacred apart.<br />
<br />
You are convinced you remember it wrong but try to forget the whole thing and concentrate on being here. This is not New York.<br />
<br />
On your left, there are various objects on wall-mounted, white pedestals. Each object looks pristine. You were already aware the show features objects from the artist's studio that they had no need for anymore, and anyone visiting the show can photograph or draw any of the objects before taking it with them, as long as they leave an object here in return.<br />
<br />
It's like a Facebook swap group, you think, and wonder if it will eventually be filled with baby clothes and USB chargers.<br />
<br />
You turn around and look at a work called Lopullinen (“Final”), made of photographic basecoat and beeswax. It looks like every other white-surface-with-scarce-marks type of painting you've seen. Such works always make you think of Malevich and how ignorant you are for not seeing the legacy, the variation, and the potential in the tradition of emptied surfaces.<br />
<br />
You are not a visual artist. To feel more at home here, you think of a bold campaign proposition for a yogurt brand where this kind of empty field style of paintings could be utilized: Two images, one of yogurt with bits of jam scattered and another of a Rauschenberg or a Kanervo painting.<br />
<br />
You sometimes work at marketing but now you are here because you also sometimes work at the art world. Right now, you're not working in either. Is it weird to hang out at the office if you're not being paid to be there?<br />
<br />
Facing the gallery office you turn around, take a few steps back towards exit and the window surface with handouts, and turn left to enter the main room. You notice the floor features white objects that resemble bags of clay. They are made of clay. You understand this is conceptual humor, or you think you do, and just as you notice a couple visiting the gallery, you imagine yourself laughing out loud and cursing a lot because you've suddenly become a brash man of letters in your search for a role to help you get through another art-related social situation. That audacious, masculine laughter is your sonic idea of both New York and historicized conceptual art.<br />
<br />
You like the carelessness of the objects. Perhaps neat, clear-cut concepts have begun to suffocate the artist. But the objects also remind you of the artist's work in Ateneum a few decades ago, where they had cardboard boxes on the floor.<br />
<br />
In the 90's, art looked more like a holy mess. You have only seen pictures of said work in Ateneum. You were born in 1981. Your parents didn't take you to museums so you didn't see any shows in the 90’s.<br />
<br />
In the main room, next to the clay bags, there's a table placed diagonally. It looks like a minimalist designer's desk. It reminds you of the pictures in Front Desk / Back Office, of the back rooms of commercial galleries with the same modernist design chairs by Eames, Jacobsen, and Rams. The table and chair here are not high design, but most likely from Ikea. This is more social democratic than liberal in ethos.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9T2N5xvrJWIhjDk2AjABkVA0WMBS9dD1ciI-xYLyr4_f5U0DmAiUvIFmliL6VNcMKpbeciYydiOJrAa_OZ0XX8fgDwv9uZ8ft_LyKAWM-ef8n5zepG-jjHOzUFxJ7hMx800lzWXQvD3A/s1600/kanervo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1201" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9T2N5xvrJWIhjDk2AjABkVA0WMBS9dD1ciI-xYLyr4_f5U0DmAiUvIFmliL6VNcMKpbeciYydiOJrAa_OZ0XX8fgDwv9uZ8ft_LyKAWM-ef8n5zepG-jjHOzUFxJ7hMx800lzWXQvD3A/s400/kanervo.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marja Kanervo, main room at AMA gallery, installation view. Pic by Jussi Koitela.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
At the table, you can draw an image of an object you took from the show. In the walls, there are photographs and drawings of the objects. They are below your natural line of sight. You think of how men always seem much taller than you, although you're tall yourself. You still seem to think in terms of men and women although you are not either one. You would like to look at this show and not think of anyone's sex.<br />
<br />
No matter how white the walls, the categories appear if you scratch the surface, like Kanervo has often done. You remember reading from a Pori Art Museum publication how Marja Kanervo shows you the marks and signs of labor, such as residue plaster on the floor from having cut a piece of the wall off, while casting their self out from the view.<br />
<br />
You cross the main room to reach the doorway to a kind of hallway. On the right, you witness the work Oksidipunainen (Oxide Red). On a miniature shelf, there is red pigment lying partly in a bag and the bag has leaked the pigment down to the ground.<br />
<br />
It is what it is. It is not for you, not today. Looking at the work makes you show your back to the whole show, like you're saying no to all the playfulness of exchanging objects and the artist revisiting their oeuvre, and instead devoting yourself to this altar of modernist sculpture-rupture. And even though this is not for you, you recognize the kind of person who finds this work to be the only proper one in the show. This work is here so all the artists in Finland having a knack for Orthodox mysticism can feel OK about this show. The sacred is secured. You feel bad for being so petty.<br />
<br />
You turn around and peep into a very small room that's on your right. There are paper planes made of old art magazines and catalogs, presumably from Kanervo's collection. The work is called Henk. Koht. (“Personal”), materials used are paper and bronze cast. You forget to look for the latter material.<br />
<br />
If this is not a work that smiles wholeheartedly at all the serious words written about an artist then I don't know what would be, you say to yourself, half-audible. The title of the piece, Personal, nudges you to ask: personal to whom? Can an artist create intimacy without being intimate? Can you reach from a distance?<br />
<br />
Having walked full circle, you have returned to the entrance room. You look at the objects again, and wonder why the artist would have such stuff in their life in the first place. What were they planning to do with what looks like a roll of paper made of copper? Why hasn't anyone picked that up yet? It must be valuable. This is a solution to the problem of having stuff. But it's not, because there's the exchange which means the artist will get new stuff in return. It's not KonMari. What will Kanervo do with the materials people give in return?<br />
<br />
And what about the photographs and drawings of the items, altogether tied into a single work titled Jatkuva (“Perpetual”), filed under “mixed media” and costing 18 000€. Is the price a conceptual joke, too, and will I get a slice of the money if I bring an object here? A price for a new artwork is strange because you're essentially paying for what took a lifetime to make. And that's why criticism is weird as well. You are at the gallery only for some minutes more, while the land underneath will not even notice the building ever existing unless our understanding of energies and connections is fundamentally flawed which is a real possibility.<br />
<br />
You retreat to a corner in the main room and read the text curator Jussi Koitela has written for the show. You realize Jussi has seen what you are seeing, that this is a life's work and a kind of culmination for an artistic practice that has been too often interpreted through the dictum of minimalism and conceptualism.<br />
<br />
Jussi writes “Life, economy, and work constitute the dialogue of the body with the material world”, referring I assume to Kanervo's life, economy, and work, but also to ours. You consider if you want to be in dialogue with all of this, and whether you'd like to donate an object. You only have some gum with you -is that offensive to give? You decide you will not fulfill the exchange, although that copper paper and also that sturdy rope up there look really appealing and something you could sell for cash.<br />
<br />
You consider once more the painting-looking object made of beeswax, and the altar-looking assemblage, and the clay casts. These works bother you the most in their traditional art objecthood-ness.<br />
<br />
You try think about those three not as things having been made from something, but as non-manipulated as the objects offered for exchange. They are not a result from a kind of experimentation with other materials, but rather a thing onto themselves.<br />
<br />
Every object is an independent object? Is this material realism?<br />
<br />
You don't want to go deeper into this, but you are happy having founded a way of looking at those three works not as art finely crafted, but as happenstance, as tapestry of material collisions that took place when you weren't there. Now this new collision between you and one of the objects emerges without the earlier collisions. Or is that even possible, isn't these relationships you're having with the three works made possible by all your (respective) past relationships?<br />
<br />
Your brain dissolves like fried banana. You are beginning to like the show.<br />
<br />
You realize the three works that “look like basic art” are catalysts forcing you to think harder and feel more.<br />
<br />
The exchange of objects seemed easy to grasp at first, but now it feels ridden with complications. The exhibition creates problems for itself. The dynamic creating these problems is made of the following parameters: modernist traditions, relational-material practices, questions of authorship, the city and the gallery as interfaces, and your expectations of art.<br />
<br />
For a second you grasp what's happening here but someone enters the room and you panic, and you stop thinking and go back to performing a guard, or an athlete.<br />
<br />
You are ready to leave. You're trying to crystallize your experience into words. Something like “How to live with materials, when they are ripe with expectations? Kanervo's solo exhibition On Materials illuminates how the legacies of material investigations in contemporary art can run parallel to and cross paths with more personal ruminations, which for Kanervo seem to be one and the same thing. The artificiality of the exchange lends the show a deadpan look, like the existential slapstick character who already knows she'll slip on the banana.”<br />
<br />
You close the door gently behind you.<br />
<br />
2.<br />
<br />
Ama is located close to the city's most fabulous public library, the one on Richardinkatu, a stone's throw from the more busier parts of central Helsinki, with cobbled roads all around, making a stroll in the area physically distinct.<br />
<br />
A geological <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/geological-map-of-finland-quaternary-deposits-helsinki-suomen-geologinen-kartta-maaperakartta-helsinki/oclc/756602668" target="_blank">publication</a> from 1975 by Maija Haavisto and Esa Kukkonen depicts the history of the soil under my feet. Over 4000 years ago I would've been awash in the Littorina Sea, a less salty precursor to Baltic Sea, like phone calls are to Internet. I imagine glaciers, the ultimate in bleak and monumental sculpture, sailing around me in the world that was here even before Littorina, some 12 000 years ago. Some of us might get to see Helsinki being taken over by water once more.<br />
<br />
Today the area is known as Kaartinkaupunki district. It is characterized by slopes and dips, perhaps shaped by postglacial land uplift. That's a term I picked up from that publication above.<br />
<br />
These geological concepts feel as distant to me as the Minimalist and Post-Minimalist rhetoric, utilized by Finnish art historians to box in Kanervo's practice: The artist traveled to New York in 1981, saw Eva Hesse's work and some exhibitions in derelict industrial sites, and thus the origin story was born and repeated in catalogs texts up to this day.<br />
<br />
Is the New York postwar art scene with its dematerialization and other such strategies the Littorina Sea to Kanervo's style? The simmering batch from which the gutsy 80's and 90's Finnish art was set off by the gradual “Westernization” following the fall of Soviet Union, rise of EU, explosion of cheap flights, and the advent of internet?<br />
<br />
With the Ama exhibition, Kanervo chose not to follow the worn path set out for them by art history. It's no wonder the show was greeted with confusion, for example in the Finnish-language Taide magazine.<br />
<br />
Is Kanervo trolling? Where are the ultra-reduced, sleek spatial interventions? How do you fit this mix of works to Kanervo's oeuvre? Truth is, their work has often strayed from a deterministic lineage. Kanervo has made clothes, montages, and of course those slick wall texts.<br />
<br />
The roads going up and down make walking in Kaartinkaupunki a more exhausting enterprise than in the flatter parts of the center. The area of Kallio, taken over by creatives, is another home to many ascends and descends. I wonder how that affects one's life or creative energies.<br />
<br />
The galleries from which contemporary art museum Kiasma, I’ve understood, seems to buy most of its works are all located around a pleasantly flat square in Punavuori. If you go there from the museum via Mannerheimintie and then turn to Bulevardi, you're in no time at Anhava and Helsinki Contemporary. Shopping made easy, like one expects it to be in the city center.<br />
<br />
The aforementioned publication from 1975, titled “Quaternary deposits in the Helsinki map-sheet area including sea bottom”, explains how the land in Helsinki is originally comprised of clay, but in the central area it is mostly been removed or covered with more sturdier landfill, in what is only a temporary compromise in planetary time between urban and geological agencies.<br />
<br />
In Kanervo's trademark works, comprised of etching off plaster from walls akin to Gordon Matta-Clark, or of materials degrading throughout the span of an exhibition, the viewer is made to think of other temporalities besides the present one. It is really time that Kanervo paints with, after all.<br />
<br />
Maybe this exhibition is not that different from the other ones, then? Time shared, time away, time left (as in the artist’s more ecologically minded oil pieces), and the effects of time made visible are some of the main concerns of Kanervo's work in my eyes.<br />
<br />
When I studied documentation from Kanervo's earlier works, those past pieces usually gave out their concept immediately: ascending steps filled with oil, mirroring surfaces in nature, cardboard boxes filling the space, or checkered squares, in the style of Carl André, taking over the floor. But there's so much more, too: Works that absolutely deviate from the lineage of conceptual art: trials, experiments, perhaps mishaps, but most of all the joy making objects and creating spaces.<br />
<br />
This is not the story of an obsessively rigid designer-y artist repeating the same form endlessly, but of one’s who is dedicated to boundless experimentation.<br />
<br />
Whereas in the 90's, Kanervo's artworks were usually interpreted either through the canon of postwar conceptualism or overwrought explanatory symbolism, today we can look at Kanervo's artistic output for what it is: materials and conditions in dialogue. You can still take the works to reflect anything from humble spirituality to the grief of the Nordic soul, as critics (and the artist) have done in the past, but there's no reason to redeem the works by overwriting them with symbolic tapestry. We have no need for the landfill anymore: the bare earth at last.<br />
<br />
3.<br />
<br />
In the mid-1800's, a shoemaker had its shop opposite where Ama resides in today. Today, the stores focus more on luxury than necessities, helping their customers reach peak Maslow. The buildings here in the southern bit of Kaartinkaupunki carries the august patina of being one of the oldest urban areas in Helsinki. It's a highly typical setting for a commercial gallery, although in Finland the difference between artist spaces, for-profit galleries, and museums is hard to locate.<br />
<br />
It's usually pretty quiet in Kaartinkaupunki, since only a thousand people live here. A tenfold number of mostly white-collar workers come in everyday, but their hours and mine do not overlap.<br />
<br />
The relative quiet of Kaartinkaupunki is the muteness of old wealth, of having no need to gather attention towards your power. It is the opposite of the young, user-cum-influencer's hunger who is trying to make a(nother) career in social media.<br />
<br />
I wish to not compare Kanervo to old wealth or dismiss Ama for its location, but am instead depicting the environment in which the exhibition takes place. Concerning the young influencers, I imagine Kanervo doesn’t have to be online to find work and attention, but how could I know. I am fighting for the same opportunities with colleagues 10-40 years younger and older than me. Roads rarely lead anywhere nowadays.<br />
<br />
While getting closer to Ama, I stop to stare at the grand buildings stocked with copywriters and financial consultants. The buildings reek of opportunity, potential, and power. I can feel the desire for all such things take over me.<br />
<br />
4.<br />
<br />
Art has always taken a liking to soundless money. Having a silent partner is the ultimate dream in running a gallery. Someone who pays the bills, doesn't mind the content, and disappears to the background.<br />
<br />
The money that is being made in the online epoch prefers to make noise. Microsoft has a start-up incubator named Flux nearby Ama in an expensive-looking, old-guard residential building turned into office spaces. It comprises of one whole floor. I go there sometimes to write or play Magic:The Gathering, because it's free to enter and there's complimentary coffee & soft drinks, provided you can bear the aspiring slogans and general can-do, start-uppity attitude abound. The bathroom mirror doubles as digital screen superimposed with latest tech news. Last time, it informed me about an upcoming Apple product launch while I was gathering myself to face the entrepreneurial world behind the bathroom door.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8RfyZSXJ7dwgDaYLJNDrnmcgTxTCuwbtFumh2OGpk0h7dQVAkf5_2dRPUsekfglk3h0su-P7MRr42WNu7-OjgHHCAT3av7lVeljgX5wiD7xa9NVutRIAY0KFtxPrlcPxYccqjUgxs6WA/s1600/peili-flux.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8RfyZSXJ7dwgDaYLJNDrnmcgTxTCuwbtFumh2OGpk0h7dQVAkf5_2dRPUsekfglk3h0su-P7MRr42WNu7-OjgHHCAT3av7lVeljgX5wiD7xa9NVutRIAY0KFtxPrlcPxYccqjUgxs6WA/s320/peili-flux.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Selfie at a high-tech bathroom.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In November during my morning wandering, months after the Kanervo exhibition had closed, I am walking towards Ama from west, as I would do normally after visiting the galleries in Punavuori first, although I should really be hunting for work instead than doing these rounds.<br />
<br />
It's 9 am so the gallery is closed. I try to peep in from the windows but mainly see the reflection of the opposing side of the street, where the shoemaker once toiled away. Squinting my eyes, I can make out there are paintings, of standard sizes, on the walls. I imagine a film crew preparing to shoot a scene there. I think of a set designer who has made the gallery space look like a gallery space. My fictional actors are looking at their social media feeds on their mobile screens, sitting in for the gallery personnel who will take over the inattentive staring exercise after the crew has disappeared.<br />
<br />
Richardinkatu descends towards the eerily empty square of Kasarmitori that is now home to one of the most aesthetically insulting works in recent history, a national memorial for Winter War. It is painfully literal. It is comprised of a 5-meter or so human figure full of holes. A collection of war-era photographs depicting stock Finnish history have been placed in a windowed room that doubles as the statue's plinth.<br />
<br />
To compare it with the cool subtlety of Kanervo's memorial for the victims of Finnish civil war 1918-1919, found on a quiet off-site in Suomenlinna island goes to show how history can be recounted in dramatically different registers. I discovered Kanervo's memorial piece from an eloquently written book by Marja-Terttu Kivirinta (see list of sources below).<br />
<br />
Whenever I visit Ama, from the inside, that is, I tend to stroll around the space once or twice. There's a narrow, shy hallway in the back with a small room on the side opposite to the wall of the main room. The hallway connects the office area, entrance room, and the main room together. After making a full circle, I usually find myself settling on the farthest corner of the bigger room, next to the row of windows, so I can take in a kind of general view of the exhibition.<br />
<br />
During Kanervo's, three months ago, I visited only once, spending around 30 minutes in the space, which is diminutive to the lifetime it has taken for the artist to come up with the works in question. Paradoxically, Kanervo's more well-known works feel almost hurried, experientially, in comparison to the spirit of the Ama show, because this exhibition demands more time from you. There's very little to take in at a glance, and there is none of the effect of Kanervo's interventionist works, where just being there inside the site-specific installation counts as experiencing the work on full.<br />
<br />
The Ama show is not only an intellectual exercise, either, but one that makes sense only if you care to consider its many aspects. There's no snappy effect here. This show would look tiring in Instagram.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3H1kkn8P0sf35Nyl44VFQDkt971EV6eVmNnPuXCEfzs4VPWxgON8EL_KhaFGWDFtGQ8-5JTJ7lEsqX51wtDx0xPzyy8XMKdEqK26_EtZsHNEPPnvHIW8k92erSwHkKugD0w1O3vH1JJU/s1600/kanervo-9.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="264" data-original-width="400" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3H1kkn8P0sf35Nyl44VFQDkt971EV6eVmNnPuXCEfzs4VPWxgON8EL_KhaFGWDFtGQ8-5JTJ7lEsqX51wtDx0xPzyy8XMKdEqK26_EtZsHNEPPnvHIW8k92erSwHkKugD0w1O3vH1JJU/s400/kanervo-9.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marja Kanervo at Such Gallery, Helsinki, 2015.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
5.<br />
<br />
Jussi Koitela, who has written the handout text, used to run a vitrine gallery called <a href="http://best-in-helsinki.weebly.com/" target="_blank">Such </a>with me, in another wealthy but even more quiet area of Helsinki called Töölö, a few kilometers from Ama. I had contacted Kanervo already in 2013 to propose a one-day exhibition in Sorbus, but that didn't pan out due to timing.<br />
<br />
Then in 2016, we managed to get Kanervo to create a new work for our vitrine. A small, rustic painting frame was placed inside our human-size, vitrine-as-gallery. A covering tape was attached to the glass, with letters carved out that spelled KYVYTTÖMYYS. Translating to “inability” but also “impotency”, it was a striking message in an old-fashioned, bourgeois residential area. A former President of Finland lives next door.<br />
<br />
I try to read Jussi's text. It's challenging to read standing. I picture myself sitting on a mush passenger seat in a train traveling from Cologne to Brussels, taking in my dear friend's thinking, while in the corner of my eye the train crosses river Meuse and the world outside looks just as colorless as Helsinki, or modernist design chairs at a gallery's back room. The European visual information from the window of the train is reminiscent of failed clickbait, or of bot-like online ads, as if I'm back at Microsoft Flux staring at the hi-tech bathroom mirror. The travels of a creative rarely seem to take them anywhere.<br />
<br />
I wonder if Kanervo's aesthetic is born from such travels, and from the heady-but-tongue-in-cheek tradition of central European conceptual art (no clear idea what I'm referring to, but I'm sure someone knows what I mean -think of design but also excrement), and the precise but plain serial installation style that is prevalent on the rows of images circling the walls at Ama.<br />
<br />
Kanervo's strategy of writing words on institutional (and sometimes other) walls is an act of handing out information one doesn't necessarily need, so that the experience leaves you confused, unsure if the word was meant for you, or if it was just a byte from an endless feed made by the artist over their lifetime instead of an algorithm? Can you be site-specific when everywhere feels the same for the middle-class art consumer? Is an installation at Venice any different from one at Helsinki?<br />
<br />
Looking at images from catalogs and other publications, there's a loneliness in Kanervo's practice, in going around doing things that are directed to no one in particular, created by a bodiless non-presence. This lonely feeling is hidden so deep behind the walls of elegance and craft that when I reach it, I feel fraudulent.<br />
<br />
I remember what Kanervo said about the ambience surrounding the forming of the legendary performance art group Jack Helen Brut, and how they all felt so beautiful and omnipotent and young, like such groups always do in the beginning, and how, subsequently, Kanervo dropped out because acting or being seen that way was not a good fit, and how Kanervo's career has, after that, kept the image of the artist away from the works themselves.<br />
<br />
Can we say things without being there to say them? It's such a basic yet fundamental question. It has haunted me whenever I've done exhibitions myself. Why do we invite people to look at what we've done without being there in person?<br />
<br />
At the Ama show, I feel Marja Kanervo is almost there. The instructions on how to interact with the exchangeable objects read like a note left at the kitchen table by your Airbnb host dreading of human interaction. It’s as if the world, and especially the people in it, are so unreliable that Kanervo wants to be in charge of how, and if, an exchange should take place.<br />
<br />
The exhibition keeps my mind busy. There are so many connections, modernist baggage, heaps of materials asking different questions, and piles and piles of histories, practices, and trajectories waiting to be excavated. I haven't wrestled with a show this much perhaps ever before. I've worked on this text for six months, and it's still nowhere, but I need to go somewhere else now.<br />
<br />
I'll end with a quote from Antti Saarela, writing for a publication about Kanervo's exhibition at Pori Art Museum in 2003.<br />
<br />
<i>"It is possible the artist discusses the power that signs hold, the issue how an anonymous subject may have a voice but not the power nor the capabilities to name the public or even his or her public domain."</i><br />
<br />
*<br />
<br />
<a href="http://marjakanervo.com/" target="_blank">Marja Kanervo</a>: Materiaaleista ("On Materials") was on display at gallery <a href="http://ama.fi/" target="_blank">Ama</a>, Helsinki, between Aug 10 and Sep 2, 2018. Coincidentally, my first <a href="https://hampaat.blogspot.com/2017/10/alma-heikkila-ama-gallery-6-oct-29-nov.html" target="_blank">blog post</a> was about a solo by Alma Heikkilä at the same gallery.<br />
<br />
Sources:<br />
Marja Kanervo catalogs and exhibition publications:<br />
- (Dis)appearing. A Museum of contemporary art Kiasma publication 138/2013<br />
- Oulu City Art Museum 9.10.-19.12.2004<br />
- No Name. Pori Art Museum publications 68, 2003<br />
- Artist of the Year. Helsinki Art Hall 1992<br />
- Joensuun taidemuseon julkaisuja 1/1990<br />
Marja-Terttu Kivirinta: Yhdeksän taiteilijaa, WSOY 2007<br />
Maija Haavisto, Esa Kukkonen. Geological map of Finland, Quaternary deposits, Helsinki. Geologian tutkimuskeskus, 1986<br />
Front Desk / Back Office. The secret world of galleries in 39 pictures and two texts. Fucking Good Art, 2010<br />
Taide-lehti, 4/2018<br />
<br />
With warm thanks to Miina Hujala for insightful comments.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-42542154774155467132019-01-27T00:26:00.001-08:002019-01-27T00:47:16.712-08:00THE CIRCUIT I NEED: TALVI, A CHOREOGRAPHY BY LAURA JANTUNEN<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Witnessing the performance <i>Talvi </i>by
coreographer <a href="https://www.lauranen.com/" target="_blank">Laura Jantunen</a>, at Zodiak centre for contemporary dance in Helsinki, meant the (or a) world to me. Or, these are the
kinds of artworks that give me that essential, life-affirming energy.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
For some time in the beginning, I was
not sold. I wondered if the artist had went for a monotonous movement exercise for no other reason than to get the job
done. Watching
the two dancers, Jantunen and Pauliina Sjöberg, doing repetitive
circles as if imitating birds, or being high as kites and floating
about, the always-reconstructing Westernized brain was
malfunctioning: How to interpret this, what does this mean? Why do
they commit to those movements? And what is this static that seems to increase
in volume? And what should I make of the two monolithic objects on
both sides of the Zodiak stage, not unlike the alien rectangle
in Stanley Kubrick's <i>2001: A Space Odyssey? </i><span style="font-style: normal;">Why
does Jantunen sport a sweatshirt with a opal side split, while
Sjöberg's</span><i> </i><span style="font-style: normal;">clothing shows the same color flashing at waistline? </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">In a
word, I was anxious and unforgiving. I wasn't ready to take everything in. I was trying too hard to make sense. My mind was
on the lookout for literal and symbolic cues. This surprised me because I've seen works by Jantunen before that traveled in similar terrain. Perhaps the formality of Zodiak got to me, or whatever fear of the day I was dealing with, like the influx of familiar faces at the lobby before the performance, causing a near panic attack.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">After 15 minutes or so,
as the dancers' looping movement patterns begun to fall out of sync, all
these considerations faded out. Instead, I marveled the piece for its
more fundamental characteristics: The relations between things. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">The
monoliths reflected light beams that in turn were synced with the
sound. I am assuming there was a sub-bass speaker that caused the
reflective surface to vibrate and thus create light reflections
around the space, but I didn't ask. After the performance was over, I had no need for additional info.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">The sound increased and the light flickered.
Finally, it reached its peak, and after that the space fell almost silent. The
dancers continued on their looping paths, but without the hand
movements. They were just walking. It's as if you're stuck on your
pattern but without the content that makes you you. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Now there was a before and after. I
wouldn't blame anyone for reading this as a post-apocalyptic scenario,
in which unforgiving conditions hit you with amnesia, and there's
nothing left to do but to barely exist. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The sound came back, and
the dancers found their gestures anew, this time more elaborate with
their heads gently swinging. What was once monotonous repetition was
now re-staged and taken back with joy. The body rejoices.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But
more than a forced narrative, what pulled me in was the mathematical
alchemy of dynamics, equations, and energies. On this later part, the
piece folded on itself, forgoing its own rules and giving birth to a
singular logic. And then it all made sense to me. I took the work in and it made me understood relations between rhythm, repetition, binaries, micro and macro in a
wholly new way. The work touched me on an affective level. Today, the
dynamics of the world feel different due to experiencing <i>Talvi.
</i><span style="font-style: normal;">This is what art can do, and
does best. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A friend said they were suspicious of the binary of two's: two bodies, and sound and light. I must disagree. This binary setting was simply a safe beginning from which to take off to more adventurous constellations. Also, sound and light is not a binary. They are but a one thing, which I felt was at the core of artist duo Destroyer2048's spatial design. It's all vibrations, after all. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the choreography of rhythms and its rules-and-non-rules, the work seemed to nod towards dance music and clubbing. There's the feeling of
leaving the party at early hours of the morning while the world looks
alien but extremely potent, just like your body, and that feeling can
nourish your curiosity and thinking-living for days, or decades.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Art is
at its most political when your understanding of what's possible in
space-time mutates. The bodies that leave from an aesthetic experience with a
corporeal proof of the beauty of non-binary thinking, and of worlds
that defy the patriarchal one-two logic, are the kind of bodies that
can bring that said logic down. This is art that gives you energy
to believe in new systems of being and beings. This is
science-fiction embodied. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">You
can reach people with words, but you can also reach them with
affective dynamics. An increase in volume, a body that trips, a fabric cut to show and hide at once, a
break, a descending note, the chaotic flicker of light, a
multiplicity of contracts between different materials that defy
causality and correlation while playing with them: Such affects are
felt in the body and they reach us in the now. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">For
me, Talvi gave a sneak peek to art that strives to create new
affective logic. What do I mean by ”affective”? I'll quote
Kathleen Stewart</span><i>:</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
”Ordinary affects are public feelings that begin and end in broad
circulation, but they're also the stuff that seemingly intimate lives
are made of. They give circuits and flows the forms of a life.”
(</span><i>Ordinary Affects, </i><span style="font-style: normal;">2007)</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Could
it be that art deals with inordinary kinds of affects, the ones not
yet named and circulated to exhaustion? Maybe. My fellow artists, I
urge to create and cherish the circuits and flows you need.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><b>----
</b></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Talvi.
Concept and choreography by Laura Jantunen. Space and sound by
Destroyer2048 (Ilmari Karhu & Tatu Nenonen), costume design by
Hanne Jurmu, dancers: Pauliina Sjöberg, Laura Jantunen. Premiered at
Zodiak, Helsinki, 22</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">nd</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
of January 2019.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Shu_jkQD400/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Shu_jkQD400?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjawOtgjK0MkeLj-2ZlHtDUZp0SxsdLwNnvPf7jxjTKSqhysLVVsvEreNn6yQPT47f_QT3yVu5fG-6CIzmd72OOIkMWZJf3ZOqSsOCpj2j8kkpUvtv6KkbkItfjxyDrKxXqkpfk4v1NV-I/s1600/black.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="black rectangle, no image" border="0" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="400" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjawOtgjK0MkeLj-2ZlHtDUZp0SxsdLwNnvPf7jxjTKSqhysLVVsvEreNn6yQPT47f_QT3yVu5fG-6CIzmd72OOIkMWZJf3ZOqSsOCpj2j8kkpUvtv6KkbkItfjxyDrKxXqkpfk4v1NV-I/s320/black.png" title="black rectangle, no image" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">This black rectangle bears no relation to this text or the performance, but blog posts fare better when an image is included</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-50520926670951874432018-12-07T06:46:00.000-08:002018-12-07T07:04:43.925-08:00ARE YOU A GOOD ARTIST?1.<br />
<br />
How do you know if you're a good artist? I don't mean good as in ethical or empathetic or nice, but creating good work.<br />
<br />
How could you possibly know that? The mirror in your home presents a question mark, nothing more.<br />
<br />
First, you want to look at what's being unsaid. Don't people tell you how they remember a work of yours from yesteryear? Haven't you received heartfelt feedback from your students? Won't your more successful colleagues ask you to collaborate? Do people talk about nice, not deep things in your presence?<br />
<br />
Then, try not think what's being said. When you're being introduced to someone and they tell you they know you, it means you're hot shit, not that your works are good. If people write about your work without saying anything specific about the actual pieces but concentrate on your personality instead, probably you are not even doing art anymore but trading in hype. And if older artists mention you as an exciting new name, consider what they want from you, because they sure aren't interested in your craft.<br />
<br />
If you are good-looking in a normative way, if you come from money, or if you're easy around people, you'll never truly know. A recipe for paranoia you might think. But you can't be too paranoid. Only if you're dead and there's afterlife, you might get to see if people say good things about your artistic practice in earnest. Even so, you'd be right to suspect you're being canonized only because a dead artist is a safe bet for admiration. The work might still be bad.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyDV2whYO-tWvjFjk54o2ipvZH1gph6ELRrvWSZ2bZvPydGaB0kkdA4nZec4cF2FkfDXlCK1BX-BahSw2sVB21-DSsjc-P7QA1cAIDIH6hxLpFUJ57yjOP8QvKqpgdi70Oc2YoAl0QS8I/s1600/chart+venn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Kim Modig: Mapping (2017), a digital image" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyDV2whYO-tWvjFjk54o2ipvZH1gph6ELRrvWSZ2bZvPydGaB0kkdA4nZec4cF2FkfDXlCK1BX-BahSw2sVB21-DSsjc-P7QA1cAIDIH6hxLpFUJ57yjOP8QvKqpgdi70Oc2YoAl0QS8I/s400/chart+venn.jpg" title="Kim Modig: Mapping (2017), a digital image" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kim Modig: Mapping (2017)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
2.<br />
<br />
Why do you have time to wonder if you're good or not? Don't you have work to do?<br />
<br />
We both know this is the work. People say most of our time as artists now goes to applying for things, updating our resumé, or promoting ourselves in social media. But what about doubt? How much time does doubt take per week?<br />
<br />
It eats your time especially if you had to fight hard to come through. You will always have more work to do, because people see you had to break sweat to be here: No one likes visible effort outside sports so you drudge up the past labor. You put in extra hours to the the work of looking effortless.<br />
<br />
If you're taking it easy, you probably have less work to begin with. When the day is done, you don't face the laundry pile of racism, sexism, or ableism. No one talked down at you today, misgendered you, or made you concsious of your body's unfitness to the rigid norms of this world. You never doubt if you are able to do something or not. You, as the adage of our times goes, just do it.<br />
<br />
3.<br />
<br />
If the axis of good or bad seems as repressing as any other dividing line, you may want to search for life outside its influence.<br />
<br />
You become a hobbyist, performing your most convincing carnivalesque laughter at the fools who still grind away in the binary reality, begging for legitimization. When everyone else is hard at work proving their value, you do what pleases you. These things are done for the sole reason and wanting to pass the time in a pleasant way. There's no sense of getting better. Nothing goes anywhere because everywhere would be the same.<br />
<br />
This is the small town aesthetic. Its downside is social control. Trying too hard rewards punishment. You won't be celebrated but shunned for your victories. Progression is off limits.<br />
<br />
Music scenes often work like this, as well. One could say it's not a weakness, but a strength that makes it easier for everyone, for newcomers and veterans alike. Doing your thing is enough, as long as you're OK with unspoken rules and social norms that are reified as nonchalant clothing sense, rugged instruments, aimless songs, and, more often than not, copious amounts of alcohol.<br />
<br />
4.<br />
<br />
So you move to a bigger city, or look for a more competitive scene because you want the very best in the exchange of ideas. You want to take art seriously.<br />
<br />
You meet a master who tells you they don't have any idea if what they do is good or not. The audience, or some random event like a critic defending the work to no end, will make or break the work regardless of your hopes and fears.<br />
<br />
The master tells you about intuition and energies. Nothing else to it, they quip.<br />
<br />
They don't need to think about good or bad because they're in a position where other people will do it for them.<br />
<br />
In art, we like to place some people at positions where they can do exactly what they want and make other people follow their instructions to the t, because we think this is how quality gets made. When the chosen ones bore us, we give their seats to someone new, someone as audacious but who sings a different tune. The number of seats seem to never increase. It must be we like to know who is the best and who are the not good ones.<br />
<br />
5.<br />
<br />
<br />
Even when there are no prizes to be won or seats to fill, why do some people end up worrying if they're good artists when others don't?<br />
<br />
If you've been encouraged all your life and told you can do everything and nice-paying opportunities have appeared from thin air, it might have never crossed your mind to question your abilities. That is the gist of privilege.<br />
<br />
Strong self-esteem and being presented with opportunities also feed each other. You believe in yourself because people tell you so; but they say you're good because you radiate self-worth. This feedback loop gives famous people who release cookbooks, direct films, start cosmetic companies, star in everything. The doubtful recognize the good.<br />
<br />
The people who worry about their worth will do so even at the top of the world. When doubt comes knocking, it moves in and never leaves. The only way to keep it at bay is to be around the good ones. But eventually you need to go back home.<br />
<br />
5.<br />
<br />
Are you a good artist? What do you think?<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXsR6MTtWfV4GS0WsDvXCHrTOX3tbAQoZ6e2RewpIVmDOoTeNXNAp2kcgyIsWxDf9htGcR3kThLvmd3qfpF_KZnVHEzll4PKdbhpQR-92SLtcv7n3zVJpBoJunLlLDQVVW0sbzYQ94_HY/s1600/books.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="An image of art-related books ordered by color (red)" border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="600" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXsR6MTtWfV4GS0WsDvXCHrTOX3tbAQoZ6e2RewpIVmDOoTeNXNAp2kcgyIsWxDf9htGcR3kThLvmd3qfpF_KZnVHEzll4PKdbhpQR-92SLtcv7n3zVJpBoJunLlLDQVVW0sbzYQ94_HY/s400/books.jpeg" title="An image of art-related books ordered by color (red)" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Books (pic by me)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span>
<span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-33008447077082585662018-11-12T01:38:00.003-08:002019-05-23T03:36:41.151-07:00WRITING ABOUT ART TODAY MEANS BEING WRITTEN ONTO<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>1. What to say with an exhibition?</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I used to believe the following to be
true: The medium of art exhibition is an ineffective way to share
information to viewers.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It's true in the sense that I don't
usually go into exhibition spaces in order to learn something. But
these sorts of jaded rules are meaningless in reality. What is
information, or learning, anyway?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Things are also curiously hard to keep
apart. You deal with your breakup in doing your performance piece and
the other way around. And if you're an artist who's given an
exhibition space and, coincidentally, got stuff to say, why wouldn't
you voice it through your exhibition?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
You know it's not ideal, but nothing
ever is. So many other things play out in the process. An exhibition
is the outcome from the crude equation of Life divided by Conditions
times Chaos. You already know from the get-go how small your
influence over the end result might be.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
When writing about a show, should I try
to suss out the formula I mentioned above? Should I be aware of what
were the conditions of production? I should, but sometimes I wonder
if that isn't taking away the power of the artist to present us with
the works, without needing to point toward interpretative devices
lurking somewhere next to them, the institution hosting the
exhibition, or the world at large?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Or is there another formula at play,
one in which your need to say “I did this, not some imaginary
community” derives from an equation of Privilege times Ego minus
Urgency plus Charisma? OK I admit this is getting a little fuzzy.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Privilege allows you to think you're
doing it all by yourself. Those least vulnerable are the ones least
dependent on communities. On the other end, there are those who are
too scarred by past trauma to be amongst other people again. And why
would you want to rely on such a messy thing as other people if you
really don't have to?
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The white cube with its modernist
autonomy might be problematic, but I bet many artists long to be left
alone and show their work in the way they want to, independent of who
they are. Another question entirely is whether or not society should
support these activities of self-expression.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Being able to control your creative
output and own it are crucial aspects of artistic work, especially
when it's the only thing under your control, as Olivia Laing, in
their book The Lonely City, makes clear when writing about the artist
Henry Darger who was alone for most of adult life, creating a visual
world of drawings, paintings, and text, only unearthed posthumously,
in a cramped apartment with very little means.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Perhaps that's why legendary recluse
artists such as David Hammons (or any of the artists presented in
Martin Herbert's book “Tell Them I Said No”) refuse to open the
proverbial door when fame comes knocking. It would lead into other
people stepping all over your process.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>2. Community and art</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Rejecting all communal notions from
one's practice cuts to the core of the history of Western modern and
contemporary art. It is carried by the idea of autonomous works that
happen in a kind of vacuum, devoid of outside world.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It's a political project, as well.
Independency is Nordic welfare society at its utopian best: everyone
is taken care of and given equal opportunities so no-one is dependent
on their friends or families.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But then this is reality for less and
less people, all the while art is becoming more and more the place
where rehearsals for community-building take place. This happens
partly because conservative austerity politics need a band aid (UK
art institutions give a deeply unsettling example of this), but also
because contemporary art practices are changing from within.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Public has become the primal form of
new art, and exhibition the secondary one. The word public here acts
as a placeholder for assemblies, collectives, public gatherings,
non-patriarchal familial constellations and so forth.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It makes sense that the latest
Helsinki-based art organization born from the ashes of Checkpoint
Helsinki (which, fittingly, came into existence to oppose the
building of a museum) calls itself Publics, produces mostly talks and
hosts events, and seems not to be putting up exhibitions anytime
soon.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Another new local enterprise, Museum of
Impossible Forms, is operating on a similar vein while referring in
its name to the concept of museum, which the art historian Camiel van
Winkel calls the end destination for all things avant-garde.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
What was once the fringe program
(talks, workshops) is now the headliner. When I look around, I can
see some people having not really realized this. Others are angry,
even. “Why is art about the other stuff nowadays?” This is
another way of saying “I''m white and feel like I can't get enough
exposure.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In addition to how petty such
statements ring, it's mindless to get riled up for all the retreats
and workshops & complain how art itself has been forgotten. These
events are what art is today. It's not about some limp relational
turn anymore, but moreso that art is now being done by people who
might possess different needs from those who came before, ie.
basically white privileged men. Although in most cases this change
hasn't reached the highest offices of art power.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The point is obviously not to say that
what all non-white artistic practices add up to is some delightful
communal picnic, but that art in the West is getting a reboot. And in
order to do that, you need to retreat, take stock, plan, discuss,
build a strategy, gather the troops, care for others and stay warm.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The shock that well-off, liberal white
people are currently channeling by accusing identity politics, which
has come to mean “not white hegemonic culture”, is the direct
result of feeling like outsiders in the plethora of communal
activities taking over (especially the local nodes) of the art world.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It follows that no one might need the
kind of formalist-modernist, theme-led exhibitions we are mostly
seeing today, made by curators and artists who received a similar
education in taste, class, and thinking.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>3. Will anything change?</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Change never comes at once. White male
painters following the macho-mythical abstract expressionist credo
still seem to sell just fine, and formalist exhibitions will be a
thing for decades to come in some form or another, be it by artists
of any identity.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And people in leading positions don't
give up their power without a fight. Since old institutions are
unwilling to change their practices, from hiring to bathroom policies
and from curatorial thinking to their relationship with the state,
new institutions will pop up, as perhaps could be said was the case
with Publics and Museum of Impossible Forms.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The fruits of modernism are still
edible. But if we think about the leading critical discourse, the
most on-demand artists, or the most talked-about art-related books
currently published, then in that realm doing exhibitions today is
getting close to proclaiming you're a Cubist. The performance of
professionalism today requires you organize a retreat.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In a country like Finland where
considerable support for art abound, the community-building in art
can result in a group of well-funded (and -meaning) artists creating
images of how such an activity might look like, usually for an
institution who wants to be seen as Ethical.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Art becomes a rehearsal for life,
removed from any other agency than art professionals' need to seem
like they're renewing themselves to suit the times. But perhaps this
is needed. They are stories and we live from stories.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Many of us might feel disappointed
after attending to these social art-gatherings. They are followed by
another one, on a different topic, and then again another one, all
the while we try to keep our own lives afloat.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
We might do less modernist exhibitions,
but we still have busy, precarious, and very modern lives. That's
how art happens today to the people who live it: through an endless,
drowning stream of deadlines and unmissable events. The difference
between a retreat and a corporate team-building exercise can seem
non-existent at times.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Unfortunately, art will most likely
always be exploitative in some way. Artists won't be paid, producers
and directors will, or vice versa. Only selected few will succeed,
even if the selection criteria changes, and the many left behind
should shut their traps and be happy that at least someone is finally
getting that extra funding.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There's nothing so ethical and urgent
that we artists couldn't turn it into blatant careerism. And you
can't really be angry at that. As I said earlier, life is not ideal.
Rent is rent. We do what we can, under circumstances we can't fully
control. Good intentions vs. needs we can't surpass, all that.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Managing a nuanced perspective on
things becomes particularly vexing when you're feeling overwhelmed by
the extreme, life-destroying urgency of climate change, for example.
You don't want the many shades of truth, but just the one. An artist
has gone through these motions only to realize that, say, flying to
biennials is bad for the environment and a grueling way to live, too.
So they turn their own realization into a dictum and hold everyone up
to this standard of their own making.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This is grossly self-centered, and
uneven, because everyone has different reasons for doing what they
do. We can't force each others as individuals to do things in a
different way just because that way fits us and our abilities.
Universalism and essentialism are not needed here, either.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Conducting change obviously requires
listening, and a cool head. Mostly nothing about the art world caters
for such qualities, which is why we have the kinds of lives we do. We
are finding ourselves in a paradoxical situation: Artists are
engaging in new kinds of thinking in settings that are, at their
core, hostile to the idea of sustained attention. Infrastructural
change in art couldn't be more urgent: the structure of doing things
is in direct violation with what most of us would like to do.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
What is perhaps not always understood
is the magnitude of such change. Most art institutions think, in
Finland at least, that they can go about their business as usual just
as long as they cherry-pick a more “diverse” set of artists for
their events. But you cannot include people, aggressively
marginalized by the state and white patriarchy, into the inner
sanctums of art and expect them to not turn around the very
structures and ways of doing art. It's not only a matter of who is
doing the art, but under what terms, and for what end.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This much is clear to most people
working in the lower confines of the art world, where everything
isn't about pleasing your donors or Ministry of Culture. But
understanding something is not the same as changing it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinZFIjQgJbVOB9C5ycIQR69JziVUqHR8QMv6514zkrm0ES9m4GtTg5JypX7sv6HyaTNvoT2vz_bjW_PJFawWpXoVU8vOcrdUIOWQEutipmJEdQoeiRmdF7V992IV6ZGfcAELI2_BnhXR0/s1600/Modig-Why_Did_You.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="black and white image with following text on each four corners respectively: for the content and to be social, not for the content but to be social, for the content not to be social, not for the not to be social I need to be here. In the midlde a bigger text: "why did you come?"" border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinZFIjQgJbVOB9C5ycIQR69JziVUqHR8QMv6514zkrm0ES9m4GtTg5JypX7sv6HyaTNvoT2vz_bjW_PJFawWpXoVU8vOcrdUIOWQEutipmJEdQoeiRmdF7V992IV6ZGfcAELI2_BnhXR0/s400/Modig-Why_Did_You.jpg" title="Kimmo Modig: Why Did You Come (2017)" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kim Modig: Social Anxiety Matrix #2 (2017)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>4. Whose standards?</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I argue that, collectively and
unconsciously, we still regard the solo exhibition, or the museum
group show, or the inclusion to a big biennale, or the star guest
visiting your insitution or city, to be the gold standard. The
archetypes haven't changed yet. This is why we all still talk about
museums and refer to them in titles and texts, although a growing
number of us artists work in a way that has little connection to what
happens within those walls. When will we cut the cord for good? And
can you survive outside?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Everything is still in relation to the
old models, or simply just made in the same way but with a different
topic, which means that a way of life an exhibition tries to depict
is not really meant to enter the building. Think of it like this:
Exhibitions about queer art should be presented in a way that is
inviting to queer life.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Consider also how European Futurism and
Surrealism looked like white boys with rich parents fooling around.
Art is how you live. So what would art spaces look like if their very
infrastructure would reflect some other lives? What if those spaces
wouldn't look like the lives of upper-class people, with designer
glass at the museum café, expensive jewelry at sale in the museum
shop, and the exhibitions spaces made to look immaculate? But
contemporary art has never been about class revolution, but the
cementing of its horizontal power structure while adding a new coat
of paint on it.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Before depression hits, let us return
to the question of reading a show, and to a compound issue, that of
subjectivity.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>5. Everything affects everything</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Do I look at the artwork without any
“external” explanation? And is it really a matter of either-or:
Either I look at the works only, or I take into account everything
else? It's not. Things bleed and stick to each other. I find it
impossible to take anything apart from another thing, without at
least a thread hanging between them, holding up a connection. You can
try it yourself. Imagine a box with a lid and try now to remove the
lid.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Is the name of the artist in the title
of an exhibition the perfect example of the fact that we are still
simple creatures who cannot think in fluid ways about object-subject
relations and multiplicity of agencies?
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Or, we can think about them, you know,
pick up a Karen Barad book and quote it, but we're still seemingly
far from such boundless thinking managing to change the way our world
works. It's little like the situation above with exhibitions and the
much-needed modes of producing and experiencing art.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Even though we know it's not the artist
who, in this multi-actor sense, does a show on their own, we still
insist on placing the artist's agency above anyone and anything
else's. And this is why our whole thinking must change if we want to
get rid of the long shadows of modernism and colonialism in art.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Is there a threshold in having an
agency in something? What still counts as influencing a work of art?
The line is impossible to draw. I'm thinking of Iggy Lond Malmberg
and their solo performance Boner (Baltic Circle, 2014), where
Malmberg said something like perhaps we perform Hamlet so often
because the crown in the storage of a theater wants us to do so.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Free, individual will is getting to be
a thing of the past, and perhaps this mythical freedom has been
unfathomable to almost everyone except for the ones who came up with
it, ie. the men in charge. So how should we begin to write about
shows under this new sun of intra-agencies, where we are constantly
pushing and pulling each other unknowingly, blurring the lines that
used to separate me from you or from a thing?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It's not new. This stimulating yet
confusing problem of multiple agencies simultaneously in play has
always existed in our attempts to say something. When you try to
express yourself, you end up bringing in so many other things to the
forefront. Our bodies emit all kinds of data from smells to affects,
and our words and actions carry infinite interpretative
possibilities.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Let me return to the question of
information from which this text begun. Maybe the exhibition is not
at all any worse a communication platform than, for example, talking
to another person. To write about an exhibition is to unearth both
what I assume the show is trying to say, but also what it's saying
regardless its makers' best attempts. This is the case with any human
communication.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Here, we need to make a decision. It's
up to you whether you want to believe the human, or the artwork, in
front of you or not. If you don't, you can read them in the worst
possible way. Sometimes that's healthy, sometimes violently cynical.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
You could say noise is always there,
surrounding the signal. The receptor can, by all means, concentrate
on the noise only and deem the message meaningless, or to excavate
the signal out from the static and consider its intent. Again, the
noise is at times more exciting than what is being communicated, so
the choice is not so clear-cut.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In informal art discourse, née bar
talk, née the talk that actually molds our attitudes much more than
any seminar or book can ever do, we often look for problems in
something we've just experienced together. The show was horrible, the
talk was sub-par, the event was pointless, the commercial galleries
in our home town are all crap. This is how many of us talk (kudos to
you if you ever don't!), and this is how we connect. We congregate
around faults.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
What is it in the structure of our art
worlds that make us retort to this conscious amplification of noise
and diminishing of signal? I think it's a question worth pondering.
Is it the precariousness? That we're all scared for our livelihood
and/or legitimization, and so we want to drag other initiatives down
to level the playing field?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>5. Aftermath: writing?</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
These, I feel, are the two main
trajectories at play in art today: The fundamental change in the very
forms of how art is done, experienced and presented (for whom and by
who), and secondly, the revolutionary expansion of agency, which will
sooner or later change our understanding of authorship and
creator-mediator-spectator dynamics.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But all of this is not simply a matter
of disseminating information, like I said in the beginning, but of,
well, I'd like to leave that part open. I'll end with a rumination on
writing.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
To understand how those trajectories
play out in our practices, we can think of how to write about art
today. One tactic could be to think more about who is this for. If
this is not for me, what am I doing here? Furthermore, if this thing
here leaves me cold, why wouldn't I go somewhere warm? And yet
sometimes it might prove wise to test different climates. But for one
last time, all these maxims become meaningless in life, where choices
are rarely binary. And sometimes there is no choice. You just are
somewhere.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I could also propose we start from an
understanding that being in the same space with artworks is not a
one-sided affair. When entering an exhibition, you might want to ask
yourself: Who is this "I" that is hanging out with the
exhibition here today and what does this I do to the exhibition, and
vice versa?
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The chameleon once again faces the
choice between a reflexive urge to fuse in with the surroundings, or
a Promethean obsession to challenge your environment. You are marking
the space with your energy. Is it healing, antagonizing, wobbly, or
dry kind of energy?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This unbound and always changing
multiplicity is who I am, and it's what an artwork with which I'm
spending time, has to deal with too. And how the work conducts that
dealing reverberates back to me. I am not only writing criticism
about artworks: The works are writing on me.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i><i>Published subsequently in Sorbus Gallery's upcoming publication, 2019</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-2723103710884205972018-10-21T01:35:00.001-07:002018-10-21T02:30:44.147-07:00SUOMALAISESTA KOKOUSKULTTUURISTA<i>This one is in Finnish, apologies to non-Finnish speakers!</i><br />
<br />
<br />
Kulttuurialan yhdistyksen hallitustyöskentely Suomessa, mustavalkoisen opetusfilmin muodossa:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Kuvio menee yleensä niin että toiminnanjohtaja kertoo mitä tehdään ja hallitus hyväksyy sen sillä kukaan ei ole jaksanut perehtyä mihinkään tai ymmärrä riittävästi kokonaiskuvaa ja budjettia. Puheenjohtaja on paremmin perillä. Hallituksen muiden jäsenten tehtävä on täyttää suomalaisen yhdistyslainsäädännön muodollisuudet, kuten mielenosoittajat jotka muistuttavat kohteliaalla seisoskelullaan että meillä on täällä demokratia ja sananvapaus.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Puheenjohtaja saa palkintonsa näkyvämpänä asemana taidekentällä. Se konkretisoituu säätiöiden ja muiden rahan polttoa harrastavien tahojen ”dinner”-kutsuina. Hän voi halutessaan kirjoittaa kolumnin jossa todetaan että taide vastaa jopa kolmea prosenttia vientituontiBKT-höpömittarilukemasta ja me julkaisimmekin juuri tällaisen numeroiden ryydittämän selvityksen alastamme kuten olemme tehneet joka vuosi mutta huom! taidetta ei tietenkään saa mitata.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Aina on se yksi hallituksen jäsen joka pitää kokouksissa kärttyisiä monologeja lievästi asiaan liittyen. Hänet saadaan tyytyväiseksi muuttamalla joku sanamuoto toimintasuunnitelmaan, tiedotteeseen tai nettisivulle. Tosiasiassa hänelle voisi vain sanoa että minä näen ja kuulen sinut, se riittäisi.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Toisinaan pitää kuunnella myös yhdistyksen muita jäseniä. Jäsenpäivään käytetään 615 euroa, se menee cateringiin tai Woltille ja kolmen litran punaviinibokseihin. Jäseniä tulee paikalle neljä, yhdellä heistä on jäänyt toimistolle hanskat niin hoituu sekin samalla. Ruokaa jää yli, se annetaan tukityöllistetylle tupperware-boksissa kotiin vietäväksi. Sovitaan että pitääpä tehdä joku kiva proggis ja että palataan tähän syksymmällä, kaupungilta saisi varmaan tukea kun tämä voisi olla myös nuorille.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Jos on oikein epäkelpo hallitus, niin jäsenet ajavat kokouksissa omia projektejaan läpi ja ne toteutetaan yhdistyksen rahoilla ja toiminnanjohtajan ja muiden palkollisten työajalla. Tämä ei ole ydintoiminnan kannalta niin paheksuttavaa kun voisi luulla, onhan taideyhdistysten tehtävä joka tapauksessa puhaltaa valtiolta ja yksityisiltä tahoilta rahaa omille jäsenilleen. Mutta koska se kuulostaa pahalta, on katsottu parhaaksi kuluttaa 67% tuloista kaupungin keskustan kiinteistövuokriin ja henkilökuntaan. Ja ei saa sanoa tulo vaan varainhankinta tai avustus.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Toisinaan yhdistyksen pitkäaikaiset jäsenet eivät ole löytäneet elämälleen muuta tarkoitusta kuin yhdistyksen perustajajäsenyyden tai wanhan wiisaan roolilla ratsastamisen. Kaikki toiminnanjohtajat vihaavat sydämensä pohjasta vanhoja jäseniä jotka eivät tee mitään, mutta kertovat mitä pitäisi tehdä tai valittavat kaikesta. Heitä kuunnellaan koska toinen osapuoli saa yksipuolisesta keskustelusta rahallisen korvauksen.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Strategiatyö on sitä että keksitään mitä kivoja arvoja me edistettiinkään ja sitten niitä muotoillaan suuhun sopivaksi muutaman kokouksen ajan. Näissä kokouksissa on yleensä paremmat tarjoilut kuin tavallisesti.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Nämä arvot muuttuvat aina aikojen ja rahoittajien toiveiden mukaan. Tänäkin sunnuntaina jonkin pikkuruisen taideyhdistyksen hallitus pohtii miten sisällyttää ihmisoikeudet ja ilmastonmuutoksen vastustaminen toimintasuunnitelmaan, joka muilta osin sisältää kokeellisen sirkuksen yhden päivän festivaalin, seminaarivierailun pj:lle ja Karen Barad -lukupiirin.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Yksi asia ei ajan tuulien mukana heilu: Kaikkien yhdistysten tehtävä on lisätä oman alansa rahoitusosuutta sillä Suomi ei tulisi toimeen ilman taidemuotoa X. Siksi sovitaan tapaamisia ministeriöön ja vuosien työn jälkeen saadaan tuhat euroa lisää rahoitusta kun luvataan ministeriölle että hyppäämme mistä tahansa hulahula-vanteesta läpi kunhan vain osoitatte sormella sitä. Toisinaan joku voi miettiä että ehkä taidekentän tilanne on niin ankea koska me suostumme mihin tahansa jos joku mainitsee sanat rahoitusosuuden lisääminen mutta se on sellaista negatiivisuutta johon meillä ei yksinkertaisesti ole varaa. VOS jotain jotain.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Jos kaaokselle annetaan vähän enemmän tilaa eikä toimintasuunnitelmasta jakseta kovasti välittää, niin pitkin vuotta kehitetään kaikenlaisia hankkeita koska jollakin säätiöllä on haku auki mikroautoilua hyödyntäville hankkeille ja kyllähän me tavallaan ollaan myös mikroautoilijoiden asialla.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Sitten tulee uusi toiminnanjohtaja ja hallitus joka moralisoi aikaisempien kollegoiden töitä hovikelpoisin sanankääntein ja päättää siivota pöydän, sillä nämä mikroautohankkeet ovat tukkineet flown. Tehdään strategiatyötä. Ehkä palkataan halvin mahdollinen graafinen suunnittelija tekemään uusi ilme joka kommunikoi paremmin edistämistyötämme. Google Driveen tai Officeen tehdään kansio jossa lukee ulkopuolisen viestintäammattilaisen suosituksesta Benchmarks eikä kukaan uskalla kysyä että mitä se tarkoittikaan.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Erityisen tärkeää on että pj & tj kokoustavat ihan kaikkien mahdollisten sisaryhdistysten kanssa koska mikään ei ole niin suomalaista taidemaailmaa kuin se että samat ihmiset päättävät keskenään toistensa asioista objektiivisuutta, vertaisarviointia ja asiantuntijuutta performoiden. Kiinnostavampaa kuin taide on taiteen edistäminen ja edustaminen, siitä tulee olo että me ollaan kuulkaa ammattilaisia jotka arvonsa ansaitsevat. Silloin ei myöskään tarvitse miettiä koskettaako tämä edistämämme taide sielujamme vai ei, pakkohan sen on olla arvokasta kun sitä niin edistetään.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Jos ry-larppaus on päätetty viedä ns mestaritasolle, niin hallitus asettaa erilaisia työryhmiä. Kaikkien helpoin tapa päättää jokin asia on perustaa työryhmä tai valiokunta, joka esittelee ideansa hallitukselle joka taas haluaa kahvinousuissaan puuttua asiaan. Sitten tätä esittelyä ja selvitystä ja kommentointia voidaan jatkaa niin kauan kuin roolipeli maistuu. Useimmille se maittaa 1-2 hallituskautta sillä elämä on lopulta kovin lyhyt.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Tärkeintä on että aikuisille taiteilijoille järjestetään jokin toimistotyön ja siten normaalin elämän mieleen tuova tila johon kokoontua töiden jälkeen jotteivät he koko ajan pyörisi ylihintaisilla studioillaan miettimässä että miksi minä valitsin taidealan.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Yhdistysten keskeinen tehtävä onkin estää hallituksen jäsenten sosiaalista syrjäytymistä omasta viiteryhmästään. Aikuiset eivät voi sanoa ääneen että haluan olla ihmisten seurassa ja kaipaan hyväksyntää enkä oikein muutenkaan tiedä onko tekemisissäni mitään järkeä. Siksi on päätetty perustaa yhdistyksiä (ja työpaikkoja) jotta näistä tunteista ei koskaan tarvitsisi puhua suoraan. On aina helpompaa asettaa työryhmä kuin kysyä läheiseltään että haluaisitko viettää kanssani aikaa.<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" lang="fi-FI" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBu1RBY8hI3KW1epP9vFmAx9OpYb76fv6RuIsb4FhO5AgrJeKAxqvyFyjAeZqDmS0Xs0pdXrhn_2hxvZ5Rd1wMddMWVUS8Xg1b70itjT78g3jxthMab2-wQsnv3Az3nBGtk9aQJkV1WfE/s1600/back+at+the+desk.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><img alt="a collage of texts and images depicting on-trend concepts and keywords" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1132" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBu1RBY8hI3KW1epP9vFmAx9OpYb76fv6RuIsb4FhO5AgrJeKAxqvyFyjAeZqDmS0Xs0pdXrhn_2hxvZ5Rd1wMddMWVUS8Xg1b70itjT78g3jxthMab2-wQsnv3Az3nBGtk9aQJkV1WfE/s640/back+at+the+desk.png" title="a collage of texts and images depicting on-trend concepts and keywords relating to art research in the posthuman era" width="451" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Back At The Desk, 2018, digital image</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div>
Kirjoittaja on toiminut useissa hallituksissa sekä työskennellyt toiminnanjohtajana. Hän istuu parhaillaan Teatteri- ja mediatyöntekijöiden liiton ja Suomen valo-, ääni- ja videosuunnittelijoiden hallituksissa ja pitää toisinaan kärttyisiä monologeja saadakseen huomiota.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-7735182912051764432018-09-02T06:40:00.000-07:002018-11-12T21:17:21.260-08:00GO DIRECT YOURSELF<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 12.0px}
p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 13.0px}
span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
</style>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Directors in theatre - why are they there?</b></div>
<div class="p2">
<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"></b></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Recently, a theatre play titled Turkka kuolee had its premiere here in Finland, surrounded by considerable hype. It's based on the writings and interviews of people who were in the orbit of one of Finland's most sadistic and notorious theatre directors. As much as I learned from listening to those stories, I found myself hoping the creators of the play would've looked into the root of the problem, which is the education offered in Theatre Academy and the ideological basis for the role of a director.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">People, especially journalists, like to wonder out loud how it was possible for one person to acquire such unchecked power. It's like asking how Trump can do all those horrible things. The answer is simple: the system was designed that way. We simply trust that elected people or art school professors wouldn't take advantage of their position. Put differently, we sort of rely on luck. But to paraphrase the infamous Jenny Holzer line, abuse of power should come as no surprise.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The laws and regulations also restrict what should and can be tolerated at any workplace. But sadly, more often than not, making theatre with a group of people is more akin to hypnosis or religious cult than a day at the office (but then, isn't all work like that?). Without dwelling too much on the theoretical or spiritual root of theatre, the need to believe takes in not only the audience of a play but its makers too.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">There's a way of talking, taking place between theatre professionals honing together an upcoming piece, that I haven't witnessed anywhere else. Every gesture, scene, object, word, is forced to carry extra meaning, which gives for an especially pompous rhetoric.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">All the stage actions and tryouts during a rehearsal can be analysed endlessly, usually to prove yourself to the director (something sound/light/set/costume/etc designers are inclined to do) who then decides whether your interpretation is correct. A great deal of belief in telepathy is needed to convey the ideas of a director into reverberant sound effects, dramatic backlight, epochal dresses, or the quivering movements of an actor.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> Or, if you zoom out a little, the day-to-day operations of a theatre house at large.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">All of this is ideal breeding ground for sectarian autosuggestion. What follows is paranoia: am I not part of the in-group? What are the director, dramaturg, and video designer rattling on over there? What if I'm not deep enough, like my co-actor who everyone says transcends the script?</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">People have vastly different experiences from working in theatre, too, of course. What I'm aiming at here is some sort of generic idea that seems to always lurk in the background when people do theatre. It's the relative of the ghost that keeps appearing when paintings are hung: are these worth something? What if the painter really is talented? Am I not getting it? Is this image very deep but I'm not?</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Almost all the major theatrical productions I've worked in, or rehearsals I've visited, have included shouting, belittling, and/or other behavior gone entirely unredeemed save for the "you know I'm under a lot of pressure" hail mary muttered as an afterthought during a break. This behaviour is almost solely coming from the representatives of one profession alone: directors. And usually no one wants to stand up to them. This will all be over soon, they are just having a bad day, it's nothing serious, we're all tired today, we tell ourselves.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">But why do we have directors in the first place? Surely there is no god-given blueprint for how theatre must be done? Having said that, it's worthwhile to remember our theatrical tradition was founded by a society of men who favored slavery and strict hierarchies (OK I have no business lecturing anyone on Ancient Greece, so take this with a barrel of salt).</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">When I was studying sound design in Theatre Academy, in Helsinki, I constantly wondered why actors and designers needed someone to tell them what to do. You have the text in front of you, the stage is there, don't you wanna figure it all out on your own or with your friends?</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">And how is it possible that we still buy the line, often repeated by our professors in the academy, that you can't really do theatre without someone in charge? During my time (2003-2009) there were of course collectives or (a word I prefer over the former one) working groups making works without a director, but these were always dismissed in school as "experimental", "fringe", "artistic", and thus not Real Theatre.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">In my decade of being an artist, I've never had the need for a director personally, as in I've never worked on a performance or whatever and thought if only there was someone here giving me stage directions and texting me in the middle of the night with notes. I haven't really seen any basis for their existence, ever.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">I used to be more nuanced about this for the sake of some sort of perceived civility, as in "of course there are many ways to do art and being led by a director is one possible way and I'm sure it's a good thing." I'm tired of saying that. I've been doing this now long enough that I can say this with at least some sort of experience: directors should for most parts be a thing of the past, or at best a marginal profession.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Everyone has ideas. Anyone can tell other people what to do. A director is validated through the labor of others. Yes, you can do beautiful things from that position: you can make other people shine and help them find their strength, you can see what's going on in the stage and where the problems in the dramaturgy might lie, you can handle all outside pressure, you can bring people together to achieve something. But we could all do that to each other. There's absolutely no need to institutionalise this role. For all its issues of abuse, ie. its dangers, the directorial model should be a marginal mode of working, not the primary one.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Here's a more black-and-white way of stating it: If you wanna help a group of actors and designers, then help, but don't take credit for it. If directors would be called assistants and paid accordingly I wouldn't have any beef -or I would, because I don't believe in that sort of hierarchical justice either, and I'm not here to punish anyone by turning competitive workplace games against them.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Don't tell me what to do</b></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">In June, I was visiting a workshop that consisted mostly of dancers. I talked about my survival strategies in art and shared my stories. We were talking about our experiences in the field when one of the participants said this thing that left a lasting impact on me. The way they said it was matter-of-fact, yet kind, and very reflective. "I don't understand why a choreographer should tell me what I must do with my body."<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">There you have it. What does it say about our values, ethics, and worldview, that we have created a system in which one person (typically/historically a masculine man) tells others (typically feminine people, plus less-paid staff and technicians, latter being usually working-class men) what they should do?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">I get having someone in charge makes sense during a catastrophe or, say, surgery. There are situations where having a director for a play is appreciated, perhaps when one works with a group that benefits greatly from overall guidance, say, with children. In general, I can see it also comes useful in a factory, or a battle, too. But why have we copied this system into art, which is a fun human act that can literally be anything? </span><br />
<span class="s1"><br /></span>
<span class="s1">Why settle on the most uninspiring model, even or especially so because it's the one that "drives home the results"? Why should making films or theatre be modelled after military regiment or industrial labor?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">You could say that if artists do not want to work with directors they can go and do what they want. That's cute, but the funding of stage arts here in Finland is based on established theatres getting most of the money so they can pay salaries. The financial system in arts upholds the traditional hierarchy of labor. If that's not enough, the unions will make sure this system stays intact. So really we're married with this system, and only way to bring it down is to tore it apart on all levels, from education to funding.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Full disclosure: I am sitting on the board of Trade Union for Theatre and Media Finland, which is funny since I strongly oppose this static division of labor in arts. That being said, I'm always interested to hear other views, and one reason for my joining the board was to understand theatrical work better from inside a system that protects this division. Another reason is to be able to slide in a discussion about basic income, but that's another discussion.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Where does this anti-director hyperbole leads into?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Of course, you can't make "Apocalypse: Now" if you don't have unchecked power and you're not on a narcissistic bent fuelled by drugs or whatnot to turn the world onto your own image. Is the world worse off without works of art that only an unhinged director can produce?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">These works are very important to a lot of other people, but take stock: do you find it impossible to think you would've loved something else if those works would have not existed? There's no need to stop loving those works, but there's also no need to repeat the formula that created these masterpieces of megalomania and resulted in abuse in so many cases. Why make art with a tool that's bound to hurt someone?</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">We all understand that works of art are, in a fundamental sense, of both equal and incomparable value: a short poem is not less or more meaningful than a 2-hour symphonic composition. As a society, we want to archive the big, popular, well-known works, as well as the so-called folk art that's meaningful for a given community.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Furthermore, if we would cease to produce, for example, video art, we would do something else. Art as phenomenon wouldn't really lose or gain anything by video art's extinction. In terms of art's meaningfulness, there are no better or worse ways of making art. You can create great things by a multitude of ways that are in no way tied to any material pre-requisites.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The issues we should consider are the conditions in which artistic labor takes place. Who has access, who decides on this access, how are people or other living beings treated within a given production, just to name a few possible and very real concerns.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">These are tricky issues, because such concerns are also endemic to controlling artistic expression as a by-product of advancing much-needed workers' rights. This is precisely what unions do, even when they don't want to -by fighting for substantial pay, they end up reinforcing certain ways of working as fundamental to artistic practices. </span><br />
<span class="s1"><br /></span>
<span class="s1">This leads to a situation where people are being educated in a theatre school to become actors, set designers, sound designers, directors, and so on. A production becomes something where everyone sticks to these roles and learns to speak as the representative of their profession.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Additionally, this is why I've found it hard to defend certain core contemporary issues in art, from more funding for arts, to artists' associations' demands for more professional conditions for their members. I absolutely understand and respect these needs and have fought for them, but more and more, I see them reinforcing a hierarchical system where being an artist is a prized position instead of a fundamental right and a source of joy, and where artistic work is being kept in a petty, middle-class zone of harmless symbolic decor by placing artists in the creative class.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">But if I'd utter such things, I'd rub backs with some questionable people and political parties who are doing what they can to privatise the cultural sector and get rid of any kind of subsidies for artists.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Directors keep on being directors</b></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">What happened with this one sadistic director in the past decades in Finland is not an exception to the rule. I've heard similar stories multiple times, and the accused of these stories are currently running city theatres, holding professorships, and acting as respected members of their artistic communities. I've heard people explain away the sexual misconducts of their actor peers as "actors simply being that way". My designer friends in theatre take constant shit in the form of slurs, shouting and now-I'm-your-friend-now-I'm-your-boss type of erratic, arbitrary behavior models when they work for directors. People who sign off are oftentimes cast either as privileged, preppy, or weak.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">And it's not that you couldn't ask other people to help you in the actualisation of your artistic idea. Of course you can and quite often you should. I've worked as an assistant, stagehand, designer, co-creator, and in other such roles successfully and I've enjoyed a bunch of those experiences.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">I'm not saying, either, that a directorship is some cursed profession that turns you instantly into a monster. But how come we let this system stay afloat when it's entirely based on luck, ie. let's hope this director is nice and doesn't abuse their power?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<br />
<span class="s1"></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Afterword</b></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Perhaps the idea of a director is tragically tied to the idea of infinite growth. We can always do bigger, greater things! More cowbell! More everything! Push it to the limit! When I think of the sickening projects I've been in where the director tried to "save" the piece by demanding we work longer days, rehearse more, do more of everything, this theory does feel right to me.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1" style="background-color: #7f6000; color: yellow;">What kind of worldview we are feeding with such a method of making art?</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br />
***<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Lastly, I am sending much love to all my dear friends who are directors. I'm not against you, I just needed to say my piece. This is not a closed text, it's too full of holes for that, but a conversation starter, if anything. If you're a director and felt a sting, remember you are more than your assigned role. We all are.</span><br />
<span class="s1"><br /></span>
<span class="s1"></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVeUrRie6FrXB3-7DVitDBhb-b4iK4i_lUeRM_HwCbjIjsE6jxSAWpQnNA9fV5LgunMiJoehTsuJqOSFWnKnCoRUq0sLFDIuv6pb71CJ6iXn2-OxwO9wNOLQr41-PNP6NkR6ytSJVbHMw/s1600/me+doing+a+perfo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="the author lying on stage" border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1600" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVeUrRie6FrXB3-7DVitDBhb-b4iK4i_lUeRM_HwCbjIjsE6jxSAWpQnNA9fV5LgunMiJoehTsuJqOSFWnKnCoRUq0sLFDIuv6pb71CJ6iXn2-OxwO9wNOLQr41-PNP6NkR6ytSJVbHMw/s400/me+doing+a+perfo.png" title="the author lying on stage" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Image description: the author, wearing blue pants and a shirt and sneakers, lying on the floor of an almost empty stage, with a coffee mug close to their body. From documentation shot by Christopher Hewitt. New Performance Nights, Tehdas Teatteri, Turku, 2016.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-38477111975122593502018-06-23T04:01:00.001-07:002018-06-25T01:08:13.549-07:00Willing it: On Elina Minn's "Hydra"<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 12.0px}
span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
span.s2 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none}
</style> <br>
<div class="p1">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;" id="id_bf9_6040_68e3_2a7e"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqjV8aVJl41nVW52VBsbi62zTa2AlIlAyAzSy2plH_KRd65307lKfsa9ybNzF7NMRAuTf03OB1KWZ_KKkjIRJWC1N_FB8R9NXSTUM63BjKRhfK5MJjU5wqFnn8GCdEFOxJopQTLRcXZQw/s1600/vegan_sushi.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="image of a vegan sushi meal" border="0" data-original-height="441" data-original-width="699" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqjV8aVJl41nVW52VBsbi62zTa2AlIlAyAzSy2plH_KRd65307lKfsa9ybNzF7NMRAuTf03OB1KWZ_KKkjIRJWC1N_FB8R9NXSTUM63BjKRhfK5MJjU5wqFnn8GCdEFOxJopQTLRcXZQw/s320/vegan_sushi.JPG" title="image of a vegan sushi meal" width="320" id="id_e982_defd_9fac_591f" style="width: 320px; height: auto;"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image: A plate of vegan sushi that has nothing to do with the article. From <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sushigreen/" target="_blank">Makimaki</a>, Münster.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br>
</span> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br>
</span> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br>
</span> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br>
</span> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br>
</span> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br>
</span> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br>
</span> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br>
</span> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br>
</span> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br>
</span> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br>
</span> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br>
</span> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br>
</span> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br>
</span> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;">A dozen or so people are sitting in a rehearsal room in Theatre Academy, Helsinki. </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;">I'm here to experience a performance of which I didn't read a line of information beforehand. I simply wanted to see what a friend of mine is doing nowadays. As usual, I'll try to find that out by going to see them work.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Hydra, which premiered on the 5th of June, is dubbed in the handout text as a "speculative fiction about future bodies", which I can attest to is true. Hydra is directed, written, and performed by <a href="http://elinaminn.com/"><span class="s2">Elina Minn</span></a>, and realised together with a group of artists and designers, who are all sitting in the ring with us.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">One of them is Markus Lindén, perhaps one of the most adventurous sound designers I know. Every time I go see a performance they are part of (which I have done all too seldom), I am expecting to be taken to a ride, and I was not disappointed this time either.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">If somebody would turn a theatre festival into a catalogue raisonné of Markus' works, it'd be pretty amazing; to trace that one journey. I say this also because I am saddened by the amount of work we all do, only to see all these performances disappear without anyone tying them together onto their many histories and lineages. To borrow a sound-related concept, we don't generally need more premieres, we need longer sustain times.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">After the performance, upon walking up to say hi to Markus, who looked exceptionally focused behind their gear, I noticed that the trance-y, percussion-led techno we've been listening to post-performance was not them jamming on their computer, as I've thought, but a Youtube clip of a Finnish DJ playing. I found it extremely hilarious and spot-on. It works so why not.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Elina Minn, whom I've known from early 2010's onwards when we both lived in Turku, addresses us wearing an octopus-shaped, funny-looking hat, courtesy of designer Pauliina Sjöberg who also acts as a guide of sorts, along with set designer Eeti Piiroinen, whose holistic vision has stayed in my head ever since. It might be the first instance of me longing to return to a set, like a tourist, unless <a href="https://whatculture.com/gaming/half-life-2-10-reason-its-still-the-best-first-person-shooter-ever"><span class="s2">Half-Life 2</span></a> counts as a stage.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">The way Elina wears the octopus hat could be best described as uncanny yet mundane, as if the world has permanently given up on obsessing over reason. This, to me, might be the undercurrent of their artistic practice.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span>The funniness of the hat is the sort that makes you grin like you're at a party surrounded by people alien to you & have no idea what's going on, but decide to nonchalantly enjoy it nevertheless. </div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br>
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
Elina's presence is very calming, even grounding at times. To be precise, it isn't them addressing us sitting in the room, but a hybrid life form from the future who was just borrowing Elina's body for the occasion. Before long, we are escorted to another room to try out inter-cellular existence in groups of threes.</div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br>
</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">The second room is strikingly beautiful. I immediately begin to hope the school's technicians would never take down the set. This is what a space for radical learning must look like. What on other days passes as a lecture room had been transformed into something magnificent and powerful, yet calming and approachable, like a yoga center doubling as martial arts training site for queer resistance.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">With its printed stone patterns covering the sides of small, makeshift water basins, the pale-shaped drapes and exercise mats, the place reminds me of the post-internet epoch. It was actually pretty great in terms of aesthetic appeal. And now, after everyone has stopped caring about day-glo installations combining Nike shoes, Axe spray, and climbing gear, we get to enjoy the aesthetic without the sickening sarcasm and the all-encompassing twin shadow of self-importance and self-hatred, emanating from the very real need to be successful.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br>
</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Seven or so years ago, Elina was my link to the Anglo-European post-internet art scene that lurked in Facebook groups, Berlin, hard drives of displaced artists endlessly uploading visual tropes online which then more successful Western artists could exploit for profit, and artist-run, DIY galleries.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br>
</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">I saw Elina perform for the first time in Stockholm, at a gallery of the aforementioned type. The place was called Detroit (I will chance it and guess that the space had nothing to do with Detroit). In there, they gave a hilarious monologue in front of an anxious, young art crowd. It was about a Seinfeld episode titled The Marine Biologist in which Jerry claims falsely that George is what the title says.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br>
</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Fast forward to 2018, and I'm being gently touched and taken care of two other audience members -or just people, really, since the performance is as practical and no-bullshit as attending a yoga class. As they feel around my legs, hair, arms, and torso, they both feel very careful and concentrated. I've long forgotten this is art I'm experiencing here. </span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br>
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Next to us, on a suede cushion pile, there's a text by Donna Haraway available for reading and an iPad with headphones, should one of us participants feel like not doing the group exercises. As with everything in Hydra, this option is explained to us in a perfect balance of dignity and muted mirth.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Nothing in this space seems symbolic: everything is real, which makes the exercise -an attempt to feel the similarities between sea sponges and the cells in our bodies, so as to get an understanding of the future where species are all but hybrid- feel like a walk in the park. This is normal, this is how we spend our time. Cut the bullshit and co-exist.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">I can't overstate how much I appreciated the care which was put into making Hydra a kind experience, and how giving it was, instead of draining one of energy, which usually happens when I'm expected to just forgo social power dynamics during a performance and convince myself to be equal with the artists and other audience members as if by a wave of a magic wand.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">After the performance, or the exercise, is done, we talk about our experiences within the group of three of which I had been part. It seems we all enjoyed it. There would've been ways to communicate mixed feelings during the haptic exercise (which once again were offered in a very clear way), but none of us did so, which of course doesn't mean everyone felt OK in the end. I did have a feeling everyone found it exciting yet soothing. </span></span><br>
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br>
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span> <span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">We keep talking for a bit, say hi to friends, drink some homemade kombucha offered to us by the working group, and leave. On the way home, I become more aware of my body in relation to the world and its many layers and materials.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br>
</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">At home, I look for a recording I made of Minn's performance in Stockholm back then. I do find the file, but the audio quality is weak. You can barely hear what is being said. There's lots of nervous, knowing cackling. Somebody is shouting from another room. I can recognise the laughs of people I used to know.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">On the recording, Elina seems jumpy, just like anyone who is sort of riffing on a subject and wants to keep their bit more or less informal. The piece is only 6 minutes long. The performance consists of Elina going through the content of the episode. It's entertaining to hear the storyline explained, as it's arguably one of the most memorable Seinfeld episodes.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">In the episode, George says: "So I started to walk into the water. I won't lie to you, boys, I was terrified! But I pressed on – and as I made my way past the breakers, a strange calm came over me. I don't know if it was divine intervention or the kinship of all living things, but I tell you, Jerry, at that moment – I was a Marine Biologist!"<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br>
</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Elina recites this passage to the audience, along with some information about the production of the episode, available in its <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marine_Biologist" target="_blank">Wikipedia page</a>. Minn draws a connection from George's epiphany to how it feels like to be an artist: You simply just believe in the fact you're an artist. Elina says thank you. Everyone claps enthusiastically. </span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br>
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Indie pop of the day begins to blast from the speakers in the gallery space, which leads to my recording clipping. People chat intensively. The distortion of the recording makes it seem like it's the 70's and I'm listening to my parents having a good time.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br>
</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">What has changed since Stockholm? On the other hand, we're back in the water, attempting to understand sea creatures, while trying to expand the notion of what we can be. But we're not pretending we have a job. Who wants to work anyway when we can rest together, as we did in the Hydra performance.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br>
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">What has stayed the same is that art is still seen as being about a kierkegaardian leap of faith. Ultimately, it works if I believe in it. But this time around, in Hydra, the transformation was real and not a comic relief. I left the performance changed. No one laughed </span><font size="4">knowingly; </font><span style="font-size: small;"> most of us smiled in understanding.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">After reading an <a href="http://mustarinda.fi/magazine/psyche/solullistumisen-kokemuksesta"><span class="s2">article</span></a> by Minn about ecosomatic practices, published in the Mustarinda online magazine, I realise how my fleeting experience is far from the deep knowledge they've reached with these methods (that I haven't explained at all here).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">The article is an interview of somatic activist <a href="http://satupalokangas.com/"><span class="s2">Satu Palokangas</span></a> who teaches and does research on ecosomatics. Palokangas explains how ecosomatic thinking and practice for them is "asking about yourself in relation to ecological, social, and political events, which are highly acute. How do these events affect us mentally?"*</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Later on in the article, Elina describes how "my body is the most intimate part of nature", which, along with the final line uttered by Minn in Hydra, "Lastly, we will practice an important future civic skill: resting", are lines I want to keep with me. They are now my lifelines.</span></span><br>
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br>
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span> <span class="s1"><span style="font-size: x-small;">*all translations from the Mustarinda article and the performance by me.</span></span><br>
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br>
</span></span> <br>
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br>
</span></span></div>
<br>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-45619828251476465462018-05-31T01:06:00.000-07:002018-06-03T07:36:23.432-07:00YOUR COLLEAGUES ARE THE PROBLEM<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 12.0px}
p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 13.0px}
span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
span.Apple-tab-span {white-space:pre}
</style>
<br>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">If there's a rule I think applies to all creative work, it's this one: don't be part of a scene. </span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">If you do, or you're being put into one because you're X or live in Y or whatever, you shouldn't be the one who affirms their beliefs. We all need affirmation, but consider if that's something you want to deliver & what's the price you pay for labouring away on it.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<br></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">No one who's in a scene would ever say a bad thing about it (publicly). Its practitioners will tell you how dismissing a whole medium is such a lame opinion, and how you should check out this or that artist. </span></span><br>
<br>
They say these things because they need to say that. Their justification for their practice stems from the practice itself which is a somewhat problematic point of departure for any kind of creative endeavour. Obviously there are situations where you need to conserve a practice, but for the sake of argument etc.</div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">The people running an artists' association need to be into all the nauseating art done in the name of the genre or medium they are representing. Artists following the doctrine of the day will always be lumped together in group shows with other such artists, which in itself makes it harder to make anything worthwhile since you're now stuck making sure your work doesn't say anything that's outside the norm.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br></span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-converted-space">A lot of it has to do with reputation. You want to make sure people take you seriously. Serious behaviour is being highly regulated, as our understanding of truth is dependent on us taking each other seriously enough to trust one another, something I derived from<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11127.html" target="_blank"> philosopher Gloria Origgi</a>. (<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/new-books-in-philosophy/id426208821?mt=2&i=1000408994908" target="_blank">Here's</a> a nice podcast about their latest book.) Reputation is an avatar you tend to with your life.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br></span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Reputation leads pretty </span>quickly<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> into informal consolidation of acceptable gestures: How to say things, and what things. We check each other to see what passes today.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-size: small;">This leads to every musical sub-genre producing infinite amount of identical tracks. It explains why we always already know what we're gonna see when there's an exhibition done under a given topical theme. And it lends itself to understanding why the most visible artists are all raving about the same cultural objects, from books to TV shows.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">You could say that's a good thing: It's delightful to see art that reflects its times. And it kinda is. That's how you'll know what's going on. But there are so many other ways to feel the tremors of the day. Like by living today? Maybe we should make sure everyone can do that?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Art mirroring its times is the trope by which vanilla art becomes histrionic: it's the stuff that's most exciting for future researchers who try to decipher a time long gone. It's just extremely rare that those historical works would carry any ideas worth exploring. I can still remember how it felt to be shoved tedious Dadaist art down my throat without anyone explaining why those works should mean anything to us anymore, other than that they "reflected the tumult and promise of the new century." I must add that being forced to attend an intonarumori concert should be a police matter.</span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;" id="id_54d7_92e7_58f1_5a48"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdbCiVTlKaIhkKQJOKFYp5D6HShiAyoS8W-ISMEVPxSqAlSXnlLWHxApu2Nw4APPTTkPTGyyMshV6HSlJExq4t5-ku-pJnTl9cAsWqGrvaXugwbBEC06QV2igqecoKWl6mhJaO8ljVd6c/s1600/chart+venn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="venn diagram showing how very few artists do groundbreaking work while adhering to given ideals" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdbCiVTlKaIhkKQJOKFYp5D6HShiAyoS8W-ISMEVPxSqAlSXnlLWHxApu2Nw4APPTTkPTGyyMshV6HSlJExq4t5-ku-pJnTl9cAsWqGrvaXugwbBEC06QV2igqecoKWl6mhJaO8ljVd6c/s400/chart+venn.jpg" title="venn diagram showing how very few artists do groundbreaking work while adhering to given ideals" width="400" id="id_f19a_8283_da6f_d7fb" style="width: 400px; height: auto;"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">image description: venn diagram showing how very few artists do groundbreaking work while adhering to given ideals.<br>
Courtesy of <a href="http://instagram.com/kimsartaccount" target="_blank">my Instagram</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></b></span>
<b><span style="font-size: small;">Is art pointless then?</span></b></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Doing art is selfish. Reconciling for this fact with political flag-waving will never produce anything I want to see. Exciting ideas do not equal nice ideas.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;">I haven't seen almost any art or entertainment that truly grabs me and infiltrates my worldview, my attitudes, my way of being in the world, while serving the goals of a given community. Although when that happens it's profoundly moving. But in most cases, if anyone cares about most cases, the creation of resonating work requires some sense of disengagement. </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;">This doesn't dictate what you should do as a citizen, by any means. </span><span style="font-size: small;">This is not some backhanded way of defending inexcusable bad-boy behaviour in art, or saying artists must be narcissistic assholes by design. What I'm after here is charting my own experiences as a spectator, without mixing the artist and the work. </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">If you feel that making art is pointless and you should spend your time helping others, you're probably right. All the culture we produce as a civilisation is based on plunder and exploitation. That same plunder makes possible both ice hockey matches and critical performance art. And doing the latter doesn't make the imbalance tip back. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;">It doesn't mean we should give up, either, only sober up, and be real about the effects and ineffects of our activities.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Can you name a useful idea from the past 20 years that originated in art and become widespread? I couldn't come up with anything. Then, I'm not too educated or experienced. Still, I have never witnessed any proof that ideas in art done in my time would have traveled into the mainstream, or almost into any other realm, save for fringe parts of humanist studies.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;">Maybe they have and we'll notice it later. </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;">And maybe, in general, it's better to see yourself as part of a grey mass than as some key individual who will save us with their latest art project. The fact that art is so drastically rooted in the personality of a singular artist is one of its key obstacles in inflicting any kind of change.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">I've stopped going to art-related talks and lectures with pressing political themes in their titles. Those conversations are exactly what art anyways is: artists talking to each other, with an affirmation-hungry, educated audience watching from the sides.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Lastly: there are, of course, artists deeply embedded in community work. I don't think it's a stretch to say they're doing that although they're artists, not because of it, as such work goes against the fabric of the art world. You could change those foundations, possibly. But then we're back at <a href="https://hampaat.blogspot.com/2018/04/three-questions-to-people-doing.html" target="_blank">institutional critique</a> as I wrote earlier.</span></span><br>
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;">INTERLUDE: badmouthing</span></b></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Here's some paranoid subtweeting for you all: I could name people from the Helsinki scene who, if they'd read this, would chuckle and think "oh my god Kimmo is so clueless have they not heard about this-and-this Soviet-era art movement in Eastern Europe that, really, was so bold and transgressive." No, I haven't. No-one else has, either. I can see how unearthing such stories can be empowering and exciting. I love reading about that stuff. But make no mistake, no one outside our circle of colleagues will learn about it.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;">What do we experience?</span></b></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"><b></b></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Art has changed me tremendously but it has never taught me anything. That change has taken place in a hard-to-map, structural, even molecular level. My outlook has changed.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<br></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">You could say it's particularly interesting when artists tackle real-world subjects with poetic license, or meld art with science. But why would I want to listen to an artist talk about science? Like, what, you completed a PhD on the flight over here?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">I do want to see the foundations of Western scientific knowledge being interrogated, but I have very little hope that we'll get anywhere with that by curating group exhibitions about epistemologies.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">It's just that I hear all this talk about all these issues, and all these names of authors being thrown in the air (season 2014-2018: <a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q=karen+barad+exhibition" target="_blank" id="id_a403_93c0_75c1_5643">Karen Barad</a>, more on that </span><a href="http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/120047/1/Disentangling Barad - version for repositories.pdf" id="id_4008_4e9_1e1e_4eef">here</a></span><span style="font-size: small;">), but no one seems to catch them when they fall. I've been chasing that space of reflection literally all my life. I really wanna talk about the experience of coming together and what happens there. </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">But the situation of art as a site of knowledge is rotten at the core: someone is always getting paid or advancing their career by organising the event or being vocal. The agency is always hijacked before it is set. So I've given up.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">What happened there at the event at the gallery you just went to? Did you really experience intra-agency or was it just a mess of materials splattered across the space that everyone tried their best not to touch? Do I feel closer to other species after imagining I'm an amoeba for the duration of a performance, or could it be that such cognitive transformation would take hundreds of years? </span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">As we all know, it's way more complicated than the snapshot I'm giving to you here. I admire shows that make me face this problem in an inspiring way, like <a href="https://hampaat.blogspot.com/2017/10/alma-heikkila-ama-gallery-6-oct-29-nov.html" target="_blank">this show</a> did.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Obviously, if an art event about co-existing with plants makes you feel the things you wanna feel, that's amazing, and I'm genuinely happy for you. It just hasn't happened to me yet. </span></span><br>
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">I have good reason to believe a lot of people silently feel the way I do. We are not getting anything out of this apart from learning to signal we sort of get it. </span></span><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Hence art is like social media: I am afraid I won't get the references if I step out. </span></span><span style="background-color: yellow; color: #f1c232; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">But maybe talking without reference anxiety is a goal worth pursuing?</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-size: small;">Nice people</span></b></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"><b></b></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Scene-cultivation and reference nit-picking will only hold us down and demand we follow the party line. Of course no one really demands anything because we're all nice people with manners.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;">But no seriously, your colleagues are the problem. Hanging out with other artists makes you produce the kind of work that you think people would like to hang out with.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;"> </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">I'm too scared and tired of trying to disagree in public so I'd rather withdraw and do my work in stealth mode and deliver the goods when the time comes. When you can afford to choose it, b</span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: small;">eing aside has nothing to do with a romantic loner pose. It's a strategic move.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;">***</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Lastly, I wanna thank everyone who has read my blog posts and commented IRL or online. I would not do anything without those fleeting moments of affirmation and exchange of ideas. Here are top 5 most popular posts so far (note: only one exhibition review made the cut)</span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;" id="id_3db7_d16f_acde_b229"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimQu5deHYdL-AGUl9vHi6g7rH1YIPfHUX6ZKKloqmcrDYvG_sqNx-4FqNbQYh6Hn16v0A-tKZXnfuC3m53i1AeCkJg-_-4J2BVx6RWoZ-uEi19hZ2Wp3r7r21tnIJa4G5o86xOxcWBaG4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-05-31+at+9.25.55.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="screen shot of my top 5 blog posts by pageviews" border="0" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="1514" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimQu5deHYdL-AGUl9vHi6g7rH1YIPfHUX6ZKKloqmcrDYvG_sqNx-4FqNbQYh6Hn16v0A-tKZXnfuC3m53i1AeCkJg-_-4J2BVx6RWoZ-uEi19hZ2Wp3r7r21tnIJa4G5o86xOxcWBaG4/s400/Screen+Shot+2018-05-31+at+9.25.55.png" title="screen shot of my top 5 blog posts by pageviews" width="400" id="id_e080_3bd2_6cb3_d5a3" style="width: 400px; height: auto;"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">image description: with 1775 page views, <a href="https://hampaat.blogspot.com/2018/04/three-questions-to-people-doing.html" target="_blank">this blog post</a> has been most popular so far.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span></div>
<br>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-75214350528193073322018-05-03T22:37:00.004-07:002018-05-03T22:37:50.146-07:00ART TODAY EXPLAINED Today, there is<br />
<br />
1. art that's directly tied to real issues, thus equipped with urgency and agency, and<br />
2. everything else, ie. empty representation & bandaid for liberal capitalism.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, almost all the exhibition spaces and art institutions follow the logic of category 2, so even when they show work from category 1, it will mean or do nothing.<br />
<br />
=<br />
<br />
What is needed are art spaces with urgency and agency, directly tied to real issues.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-68990148743533632382018-04-09T00:51:00.003-07:002018-04-09T14:20:32.237-07:00THREE QUESTIONS TO PEOPLE DOING EXHIBITIONS UNDER CAPITALISM<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica}
</style> <br />
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Exhibition spaces, from tiny galleries to major museums, all fail under the same basic conditions. I've outlaid those conditions here though three questions. If an exhibition can't give a meaningful answer to these questions, it's doomed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>1. Who loves this?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Museum exhibitions rarely response to this most fundamental question. If no one who did the show loves the show, why would anyone else want to see it?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You could consider the concept of self-love or self-care here, too. If an exhibition space doesn't love itself, ie. care for itself, why would we? Although it is usually we, the audience, who is made to perform the labor of care. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This self-lovelessness leads to emotional labor on the part of the body visiting an art space. I have to partake in its activities to make the space seem alive, I have to talk about it because its directors don't want to engage, and it is I who must find something worthwhile in the art works as if experiencing art is an emotional riddle akin to a confusing Tinder date. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The latter point comes out pretty clear on art world related ad campaigns and PR talk where the idea "all interpretations are equal" is always being cherished. This is not inclusivity, but irresponsibility: we don't know what we've done, tho maybe you like it? This is how male privilege also works: You just do stuff and other people are forced to make sense of it, but they are not rewarded for the meaning that arises from their work; you are.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sometimes artists don't love themselves but hope that curators would, with the chorus from Evanescence's "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YxaaGgTQYM" target="_blank">Bring Me To Life</a>" ringing in artists' heads (or if it's 2015, in their video works). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Just like art spaces, artists are not sure if what they do is valuable to anyone, but because they have their MFA degree and their exhaustive run as a tireless go-getter networker, they can't stop to contemplate how they really feel about their own workings but keep on offering it on autopilot to curators and directors and journalists to suss out. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Self-love is not only self-care but respect towards other people. if you show us things you don't love, you're asking us to do the work, to carry your problems, to do your dirty laundry. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>2. Why here?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The second point is made of two equally important words. Sometimes the "here" part boils down to nothing but random professional reflexes. This art is here because I, the director, met someone at a bar during my trip to an art fair and they gave me an offer I couldn't refuse: Say, a dirt cheap touring exhibition by a celebrity artist or a famous dead painter. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or maybe it's just capitalism. You need to produce something all the time, and there's never any time, so you're left to operate on your survival instinct, a peculiar state for producing something (art) that fundamentally does not need to exist in the same non-negotiable way as nutrition or clean air. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We humans are great at putting ourselves willingly into situations where we feel we don't have any other options. Art can be literally anything, but artists, or anyone working in the art industry, tend to produce work that requires way bigger budget than the one they have. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When a government official, usually completely unaware of the more exciting avenues of contemporary art thinking and doing, instruct directors of art institutions to provide meaningless data or perform cuts or adhere to a new neoliberal trope such as participatory art or ecological art or art and science or artists as entrepreneurs, no one ever declines. We just tint our CVs to match the job description. We think the hoop-jumping is worth it, but six months later it's all we talk about to each other, complaining about the exhaustive, maze-like policies in which we need to navigate.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We never form a front and work collectively to say no, but simply leave each other to deal with the ever-changing, neoliberal, austerity policies on our own. Best of luck & see you in Venice if you still have a travel budget.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We could begin by asking why: Why are we committing to a series of perpetual compromises to secure funding for something that will burn us all out? You could say "because of our livelihoods", but I'd rather not begin this discussion by encouraging everyone working in the arts to find a new profession. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Instead, we could talk about what could be done differently. The answers are highly different for everyone, depending on the country and context you're working and living in. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This could provide an ample opportunity to say no to each other, too. If an artist suggests something ludicrous, maybe our first instinct is not to find a way to accommodate their ideas, but to ask why would you want to do that. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now we can move to the "here" part of the second question. If the "here" equals an art space belonging to the official contemporary art world (ie. able bodies having gone to prestigious art school proving themselves to each other), it means that whatever is shown there, it will be experienced through passive consumption as part of a larger economy targeted to exploit our desires and leisure time. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You can show the most jaw-dropping, ultra-critical work, but if it's shown in an art space, it will only mean that you & your institution are now seen as "progressive" or on the right side of a symbolic battle that is rhetorically tied to concrete battles, while being made possible by capitalist logic itself. And the same goes for the audience: by witnessing highly political work, I am rendered political. There is absolutely no initiative to do anything. Art could thus be renamed to lip service industrial complex.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">People like myself, the privileged ones who have time and resources to think about things and the power to choose how to spend their time, know so much yet do so little. It is true of experiencing art, as well. Imagine you see a</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> politically charged work at an art space. You see it, greet it with your emotions, and move on. It can have a temporary effect, but without repetition, it is as memorable as a one-time ad campaign on the metro. Nothing really happens "here".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For example, as undeniably important as the work of <a href="http://forensic-architecture.org/" target="_blank">Forensic Architecture</a> is, I'm not sure if seeing the documentation of their cases in an art space is any different from seeing neon-colored plastic poles laying diagonally in a stack on the floor because some artist couldn't think of anything else to do and so decided to cherish their confusion as a guiding principle. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I dislike saying this because I admire their work so much, but when I saw the </span><a href="https://www.ica.art/whats-on/counter-investigations-forensic-architecture" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">FA show at ICA</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> in London, I couldn't help thinking about the gruesome flattening effect of the exhibition space, or any art space. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's not the fault of anyone really, that's just how these venues function: more often than not, it seems to treat everything as same. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These spaces or display practices strip objects and actions in them powerless. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You could argue that maybe this requires pack-of-wolves style anarchist thinking, in the style of <a href="http://www.zero-books.net/books/last-night" target="_blank">Federico Campagna's The Last Night</a>, ie. FA is using the resources they have to gather more attention and thus funding for their work which then leads to them being able to take in new cases, and sort of bypassing the question of artistic merit. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In this case, the exhibition is a showcase or an ad campaign, which is a more sober approach than the wishful thinking exhibition-making usually is tied with (ie. let's hope these objects together magically mean something to someone). And I think that's 100% legit tactic, as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">disclaimer: I do feel like I'm looking at this the wrong way, but for better or worse I wanted to explain how I feel about these things, for what it's worth.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Before I carry on, it's worth sitting on the idea of repetition and its power for a bit. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Art today is broadly based on the idea of individualism. It means every artist has to do their own work and then copyright protects other artists from continuing the work of that former artist. Since there are a limited number of things you can do to stand out, it has been decided that the best way to stand out is to be yourself, ie. turn your unique identity into a brand. This logic is then scaled to fit institutions alike. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For this reason, nothing in the art world resembles what an international boycotting campaign or a general strike does. The latter two bring people with wildly different opinions together behind one shared cause, then a form of action is chosen and the activity repeated to use the power of mass and repetition against, say, a corporation, or a state. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By design, artists and people in the art world can not do that, as long as they adhere to the basic tenets of modernism: individualism, autonomy, objective taste. We can't repeat a message because our careers and existence is based on the idea that we all have an individual message in the marketplace of ideas where we compete for attention. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So if we want to change things, there's no way around it: We need to change the conditions under which we experience and produce art. It's not a matter of what kind of art is being shown if the prevailing logic of display stays the same. And yes, this change would mean that we can't just be producing work independent of each other, coming together only for a thematic group show.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Homo sacer</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Think of the ancient Roman concept of Homo sacer as made popular by Giorgio Agamben. Homo sacer is a man who cannot be sacrificed but can be killed without consequences. This is what art means in society: its funding cannot be entirely cut to serve some other purpose, and we cannot sacrifice its freedom of speech, but the ideas it spawns can be killed immediately by anyone. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At this point, those ideas don't even need to be killed because nothing art produces lives long enough to impact anything. Which is why we need to churn out new concepts, themes, and trends season after season, only to replace them with new ones as soon as everyone has lost interest with whatever it was we were talking about last Fall. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And to add to that, just like Homo sacer was first banished from society and then labelled as sacred, artists are respected as special creatures whose actions do not really have any real meaning in the society other than to perform the role of something sacred.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So why is this here? Is this the place where these ideas will generate most impact and resonance? Should we really be here in the first place? What happens when we are here, in an art space? Rather than beginning with thinking about what kind of art and artists you want to show in your space, consider this first: How does this space works and what could & should be done in it?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>3. For whom, by whom?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This last question is tied to the previous one but highlights a more broader issue: Who has access to this show? People running exhibition spaces are usually nowadays aware of physical access, so they inform visitors about stairs, bathrooms at use and other such issues. Still, we never talk about mental or societal obstacles. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I could think of who is able to be aware of my blog, and then read or listen to this text, and finally to make sense of it. While making an exhibition, one could think of the same questions. But for some reason, we show contemporary art as is, as if you could just "get" it, simply by coming in.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We won't tell people that, really, you should've read at least three Sternberg Press releases, seen a handful of exhibitions showcased in Contemporary Art Daily, and gone to a university to study art history if you want to get something out from this exhibition. And of course you need to speak English and have the other capacities and resources required to having consumed tons of culture.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This issue is very hard to address. Which is way the art world has chosen to talk about how everyone's interpretation is as correct as someone else's, as I mentioned earlier. This is of course as far from the truth as possible. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Contemporary art, for most parts, is made for other people in the art world, and the non-art people who come to witness an exhibition is regarded either as collateral or a force of nature one needs to deal with, even though we'd rather not. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Just like everyone else, most of us working in art-related jobs would rather be just left alone to do our thing with like-minded people. And just like every other human on the planet, for most parts, we drag ourselves into the world to deal with other people so we wouldn't seem so selfish. This is a caricature but I trust you understand what I'm after here.</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Artists who have figured out the repressive structure of art-making usually end up choosing more intuitive approaches, or working with spiritual concepts, or whatever feels like the most suitable way out from the exclusivity that informs one's becoming of and being an artist. Even if you start making work that doesn't require those things I mentioned, it's still taking place in a context that is fully informed by such logic. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Such transcendent approaches might create hope and offer a place of rest for both the artists and the (professional) audience, and I've truly felt that hope myself, too. But we can't not to note that for an artist to be able to make such choices, you usually need a considerable amount of funding and career pedigree to feel like you can exchange career survival for a more laidback position.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And since we live in predatory capitalism, any practice with the best of intentions can be co-opted and turned into a careerist format in a split second by someone willing to do so, as happened with relation aesthetics in the 90s. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lastly, since art is about individualism, usually all practices and gestures get "trademarked" in an unspoken way, as in burning candles in a gallery "belongs" to the artist most visibly and successfully practicing it. Which is why none of our aesthetics approaches ever have any real power because no one else can't pick them up lest they be guilty of imitation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Maybe if we begun from admitting artists are just as horrible as anyone else, and our motives are just as low as other people living under capitalism, we could get rid of the idea that art is inherently good, because this aura of righteousness that surrounds art also stops it from having any real societal power. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The fact that art is deemed good by default makes you seem good by simply consuming it. It's akin to the problem of ethical consumption: people who buy an expensive "CO2-neutral" electric car are said to then fly carelessly because they've done the good deed already, ie. I saw an exhibition dealing with a real issue, I'm now aware of the problem, so please leave me alone.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Capitalist realism</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Art still comes down to "something by someone special to someone less special", and it's this line that provides us with the real challenge. Can we change that formula? We badly need new narratives and relations, since everything we do now falls under the grinding logic of capitalism, where all our activities are measured and then turned either into profit or loss, ecstasy or guilt, inclusion or disavowal, heroes and losers, makers and consumers. (pls don't mention prosumers pls)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Of course, I can't or wouldn't want to say for certain whether this or that exhibition is "doomed", as I claimed in the first paragraph, it's just how I feel nowadays when I visit any kinds of exhibition spaces. There are no better or worse exhibitions, since all art today is capitalist realism, just like all art under Soviet rule was socialist realism (unrelated to Mark Fisher's use of the term, or might be related, I don't know tbh, unfortunately I haven't read the book by the same name).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even the most transgressive, critical work simply provides the state, or some other entity that is allowing for art to happen, with a license to carry on the wars for freedom, to destroy everything that is not bending to its ideology and will. Maybe the only way to fight against this hegemony is to challenge the very foundations of our production of knowledge ie. what is meaningful, what is "good", what is worthy, what must be seen and what will be made invisible. Or even better, to think of new things to desire for.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I don't know how to do it but I'd love to do it with you since today I am still failing and I'm alone.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">p.s. A friend referred to me <a href="http://pantograph-punch.com/post/to-be-cared-for" target="_blank">this thoughtful piece</a> by Lucinda Bennett, and I truly recommend you all read it. Whereas in Finland the problem sometimes is the lack of love due to our love of bureaucracy and empty representation originating in nationalist self-image paranoia, it's good to remember that oftentimes the idea of "loving what you do" is greatly exploited to justify precarious working conditions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" id="id_39cc_9e6c_364f_6bbc" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGrd8Lr5cUH6YquUBcthXk2RvSkPuelIaI07UdEn6RltEOYnW6aL4P31PeoSCZXyF1yR3dYAbN6UnOP4BQFG2TbSQgk8Tp0KoVrvdm9W3bpsAF9xopnddtD37DfZZDTlg6iRlqaXUmfnE/s1600/culture+is+a+curse.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="an image of a beetle sculpture sitting atop a square pedestal, with the text Culture is a curse sprayed on the pedestal" border="0" data-original-height="659" data-original-width="600" height="200" id="id_a14d_249b_1dad_6b62" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGrd8Lr5cUH6YquUBcthXk2RvSkPuelIaI07UdEn6RltEOYnW6aL4P31PeoSCZXyF1yR3dYAbN6UnOP4BQFG2TbSQgk8Tp0KoVrvdm9W3bpsAF9xopnddtD37DfZZDTlg6iRlqaXUmfnE/s200/culture+is+a+curse.png" style="height: auto; width: 291px;" title="an image of a beetle sculpture sitting atop a square pedestal, with the text Culture is a curse sprayed on the pedestal" width="181" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Graffiti somewhere in East London. pic by me.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-37803344227654149042018-03-11T13:38:00.000-07:002018-03-12T00:21:35.512-07:00 WHEN YOU DON'T CONNECT WITH YOUR FRIENDS ANYMORE<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica}
</style>
<br>
<div class="p1">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgaGF6LgcAcPu4M-uMD-fiJaK2ISMUdnOnbs-1CGpw3ebnGi4thBHRIqmrVjo8NCR4Dby3fJCnvm8MrrklDkain70_pCvigBixPSctl1SFythA6Whyphenhyphen8_Sn6zzqDDMBaE_K4FdYehyphenhyphenQzo0/s1600/2018-03-11+20.38.59.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="a statue of a body that is cut from its pedestal" border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgaGF6LgcAcPu4M-uMD-fiJaK2ISMUdnOnbs-1CGpw3ebnGi4thBHRIqmrVjo8NCR4Dby3fJCnvm8MrrklDkain70_pCvigBixPSctl1SFythA6Whyphenhyphen8_Sn6zzqDDMBaE_K4FdYehyphenhyphenQzo0/s400/2018-03-11+20.38.59.jpg" title="a statue of a body that is cut from its pedestal" width="300" id="id_a1a1_9087_bd80_99ff" style="width: 300px; height: auto;"></a></div>
<br>
This blog begun from my desire to write reviews of art exhibitions. I wanted to write in a way that would be honest to my experience. My rules were these: 1. not shying away from academic references since I like to read that stuff, while still striving to 2. use non-native, easily understood, sub-standard, non-rich English, 3. steering clear from personal descriptions of artists themselves, 4. always using they/them unless I knew that someone whose work I'd write about preferred otherwise, and 5. aiming to show how the political in art is very much in the presentation and experience of art, and less so in the content.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p2">
But most importantly, I did and did not want to believe the artist. You try your best to understand their work but also look past the facade they've built.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p2">
After I had written about a few shows (<a href="https://hampaat.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/alma-heikkila-ama-gallery-6-oct-29-nov.html" target="_blank">this</a> has been my personal fave so far), I had ran out of steam. There's nothing to add, although I wasn't sure if I managed to say what I was after. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br></div>
<div class="p2">
Only thing left was to criticise the celebration of certain minds, cognitive capabilities, education, and bodies over others. But the more I thought about it (for example, criticising every show in a museum or a gallery in Helsinki based on who they want to, literally, show), the more inadequate I felt in putting it into words.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p2">
But it wasn't just that. What happened was I had lost my interest in pointing the faults of the art world. Their fights are increasingly not mine, and their aims are so far apart from my targets that the risk of a fatal ricochet begun to run high.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p2">
Not that I'm out of that world: I am currently in Liverpool for a residency at FACT, and the artist duo I'm in, Biitsi, does shows and other things in galleries, museums, and so forth. But those spaces are simply my equivalent of an office, and people rarely care for their cubicle that much. I do love the people we've had the chance to work with, and feel gratitude for being able to work in the <i>creative field</i> (I don't differ between, say, graphic design and art), all of its problems notwithstanding.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p1">
*</div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p2">The arguments I've made about art's failings could be directed towards the projects I'm involved in, as well. Basically, those failings consist of either representation of worldly problems to advance your career & look cool/clever, or claiming you have a universal right to do art that is uninviting for everyone else (you do, but why should we come see it?).</div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p2">
Art's also just work, albeit the kind I usually enjoy doing. But I don't feel any connection to people anymore just because they're artists, too, or work in the arts.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p2">
I used to, though. Having always been an anxious traveler who would shy away from any sort of interactions with basically anyone local, I found art spaces everywhere to be approachable. I'd ring the doorbell of a private apartment, because someone told me there's a show there, without the slightest sense of panic.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<br></div>
<div class="p2">
Initially, I thought this was so because of a belonging to a tribe of artists, but later on it became evident I've witnessed the manifestation of the same-same logic of capitalism's global nature. The connection could've been anything.</div><div class="p2"><br></div><div class="p2">Almost all of us live in the same consumerist world, unless or until we can't afford to be in it (anymore). The sort of connection I felt is not a sign you're carrying the torch for the History of Art, but a learned reflex that is being supplanted and tightly regulated by arts education, art writing, and other artists, just like any matter of taste (think of pop culture or subcultures) is prone to be, under our current way of the world.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p2">
This is connected to aforementioned pitfalls of contemporary art: its political quality is, for most parts, a show put on for other "active citizens", who are able to participate in these showings that usually refer to the troubles of those who can't be there, save for when they've been transported by an art institution for the photo-op at the opening. The connection I described is mostly a sign of shared class position, or of both you and your art world peer having access to the same cultural capital. This issue is way multifaceted than this but anywaysssssssss</div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p2">There are exceptions (and things does not have to be perfect to be effective -messiness is a given). All of the expectations I know of seem to treat art as a highly practical-yet-potentially-poetic-as-life-truly-can-be instrument for change, not as your art-degree backed chance to drain the energy from others to shed light on your personality and thinking. Which is what I've done for most parts, and so has literally every artist I am aware of in my circles, let's stop lying hooray!</div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p1">
*</div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p1">
It wasn't only the secret handshake between artists when visiting art venues in foreign cities I had lost. It was also the connections back home that got disconnected. Or more precisely, it's not art that connects me to other artists anymore: it is other things in life. Showing my sympathies feels forced for art-related struggles, as in whether a gallery receives support to keep running things exactly like they've always done, <a href="https://hampaat.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/do-you-really-do-your-best-thinking-in.html" target="_blank">or if a sea-themed biennale happens or doesn't.</a></div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p1">
Saying this probably just alienates me even more from you. Those who want to think of me as a self-absorbed twat can surely read this in a way that serves that purpose, while those who project their faltering hope on my supposedly offhand remarks might interpret my words so as to encourage them to continue fighting the lost (?) cause.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p2">
I love everyone nevertheless (aside from the ones I hate), and I am not trying to say please don't talk to me. Quite the opposite, I want to encourage us to look beyond the need to represent a professional face and instead talk about, I dunno, "money and blood", to <a href="https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/06/29/grace-paley-advice-to-writers/" id="id_6dab_aa96_faab_8de6">quote Grace Paley</a>, or feelings, to quote most of the people I relate to. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br></div>
<div class="p2">
And I still love art, too. It will take a while before I manage to reconfigure it, but in the meantime, I keep doing it, ditto. There is no stop button, unless you can afford one. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br></div>
<div class="p2">
I might not be coming to see your show, and I would never ever feel hurt, not in the slightest, if you wouldn't come and see mine. But if you need help setting it up, or with something else, I'm (more) interested.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p1">
P.S. I asked someone "so what do you do" a few weeks ago and I still regret it so much. If you're reading this, please accept my apology. The situation caused me to panic and then overcompensate by talking too much.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<div class="p1">
<br></div>
<br>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-69561339816585795192018-01-23T01:08:00.000-08:002018-01-23T22:59:04.144-08:00DO YOU REALLY DO YOUR BEST THINKING IN BIENNIAL FORM<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" id="id_3018_20d5_c97d_3c22"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW9egmINIpodd7xWTHhYKcY1JmVsOdxDi3H2YYMNZTO6TDnG-UsNpM6tPZLAMmJNeu8lcizHfGyyHXLn2yR5ellUU1xzUBkzzxHRJfJs1CA6rpkofFID_Ol_71H-iarPAsPBG8YcU0bXc/s1600/tosikiva.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="image of a pizza with text overlay: Finnish for curators: tosi kiva (in any situation)" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW9egmINIpodd7xWTHhYKcY1JmVsOdxDi3H2YYMNZTO6TDnG-UsNpM6tPZLAMmJNeu8lcizHfGyyHXLn2yR5ellUU1xzUBkzzxHRJfJs1CA6rpkofFID_Ol_71H-iarPAsPBG8YcU0bXc/s640/tosikiva.jpeg" title="image of a pizza with text overlay: Finnish for curators: tosi kiva (in any situation)" width="480" id="id_8dae_7f64_2c7f_9fff" style="width: 480px; height: auto;"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tosi kiva = nice, good</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br>ok so <b>a new biennale</b> is coming to Helsinki, beginning in 2020 (couldn't find an English link to the news sry but <a href="https://www.hel.fi/uutiset/fi/kulttuurin-ja-vapaa-ajan-toimiala/helsinkiin-merellinen-julkisen-taiteen-biennaali-vuonna-2020" target="_blank">here</a> it is in Finnish). I wrote about biennials and international guests <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kimmo.modig/posts/858565870981543" id="id_c7a3_afed_56be_b652" target="_blank">already on Facebook</a> <br>
<br>
It's a project that was seemingly proposed to attract more tourists to Helsinki. And if you compare it to the city's <a href="http://www.brandnewhelsinki.fi/2020/en/" target="_blank">new cool strategy website</a>, it swims (sorry) along those lines pretty well.<br>
<br>
things i have heard about this new biennial/biennale: 30-60 artists, xxxxxx target number of visitors, and that it connects to the fact that Helsinki is on the sea and there are islands there and it's nice to walk by the water. So basically we are looking at a bunch of "internationally legit" contemporary public art in close viscinity to one of the world's most polluted seas, the Baltic Sea.<br>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: #073763;"><br></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: #073763;">before i share my opinion on this whole thing, let me describe you a situation which is telling of Finnish art scene.</span></div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
Juha Huuskonen (we've known each other for ten years or so), the director of HIAP international residency programme, an org that excels in bringing tons of talent to Helsinki, wrote a public FB post asking how is it possible the city has not consulted with any of the grassroots agents of the local art scene who have lots of experience with all that goes in doing stuff like this, albeit in a smaller scale. Executive Director of Helsinki's Culture and Leisure Sector, Tommi Laitio (who recently visited an organisation I am in connection with) responded very reasonably that they will do workshops and talks to include such orgs and peeps. The Director of helsinki art museum (HAM, in which i had my solo show at their <a href="https://www.hamhelsinki.fi/en/ham-info/for-artists/applying-for-the-ham-gallery/" target="_blank">non-curated gallery space</a>) Maija Tanninen-Mattila, who works under Laitio's office, said that HAM is leading this as the city's expert art org, but that this could be a chance to make the scene stronger and more well-known. and yes workshops yes. Raija Koli, who directs Frame, the import/export foundation for Finnish contemporary art, said something similar and added that shouldnt we let HAM do some planning first, like, they know what theyre doing.<br>
Others, like Hanna-Maria Anttila who runs AV-arkki, the Distribution Centre for Finnish Media Art (I’m their board member, and Anttila in turn sits in Frame’s board), commented that people just want information, communicate more/better. Artist Kari Yli-Annala, who just received the AVEK prize for media art, i was on the jury, and AVEK also supports AV-Arkki etc you already get what I mean, said that Harakka island's artistic community is planning a 30-year celebration exhibition which would provide a good way of stepping outside of the star artist -format of biennials, and with this comment made the first public offer for collaboration. Artist Lisa Roberts called this maritime theme kitsch, but Suvi Saloniemi, curator for the Design Museum, defended the theme and saw it as a promising setup. After being kind of cornered by some, Huuskonen stepped back a bit and said of course we all want a great art event to take place in Helsinki, and everyone was like yes yes let’s do biennial, let’s workshop and take everyone’s opinions and expertise into consideration.<br>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #38761d;"><br></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #38761d;">firstly, this is what you miss when you don’t speak Finnish in Helsinki art scene. And most of my colleagues here speak English instead. </span><br>
<br>
i mean sure i guess at some point this info will ”trickle down” and everyone can get, mmm, involved, but much of the connections are made in these informal situations such as facebook threads, and art associations’ and institutions’ boards have, to my knowledge, very few English-speaking members although so many of them work internationally, like AV-Arkki, Frame and I imagine HAM too.<br>
<br>
Hopefully my explanation of the links between people shed a little light on this web. I included explanations of my own relations there so you'd know where I stand in this, not because this relates to me in any particular way.<br>
<br>
When you look at who knows who in Helsinki, you begin to understand how collaborations on a higher level happen and how impossible it is to break into these systems if you a.) dont speak Finnish, b) didnt go to Aalto or Uniarts (or their former versions), or c) studied art history in which case you can go and run the museums and defend modernist ideas of autonomy and the artists' right to be horrible to everyone around them.<br>
<br>
Disclaimer: it's good to understand that when we talk about money and art, the money is relatively small so even the highest level I mentioned there is still peanuts compared to other areas of society.</div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; color: #783f04;"><br></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; color: #783f04;">(cutaway: in theatre, the people running the theatre houses are oftentimes artists themselves, ie. directors, playwrights, actors, which sort of gives this we’re-in-this-together feel to working in theatre, since everyone there knows what it means to run a small company and clean its floors and apply for funding to pay your own salary, whereas in museums there is a stark division between the curators/executives, technicians, and artists in how dependent they are of such knowledge...I wonder how this scene will change if we finally get curators, who studied curating instead of art history, and ran galleries</span><span style="background-color: #fce5cd; color: #783f04;"> or were artists, to run museums)</span></div>
<div>
<br></div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; color: orange;">(another side note: i try write this in a way that would be as close as possible to me telling this to you at a bar)</span></div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
ok so here’s my hot take: i don’t think in biennials. I don’t speak biennial. I feel nothing when I think of that format. I could talk about whether hockey+sculptures is a suitable concept to push forward in Helsinki 2020 instead. To my ears, beginning to plan something with such facts as 30-60 artists, x audience target, and maybe at these locations, with ”sea-ness” as starting point, sounds so anti-art, because all of those things are so mind-numbingly interchangeable. Why 30 artists, instead of 5 or 100? Why this, not that audience target? why have this maritime backdrop, why not...ok that one is simply a question of the city branding itself nvmnd.<br>
<br>
<span style="background-color: #274e13; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sure it can lead to exciting results and most likely this is how you sell an idea to the city council and some </span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: lime; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">vampires</span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> who run the show, </span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: #bf9000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">maybe</span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #bf9000; color: lime; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">everyone</span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #674ea7; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">who</span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> is </span><span style="background-color: #a64d79; color: lime; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">enthusiastic</span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: #cfe2f3; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">about</span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f4cccc; color: lime; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">this</span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">knows</span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: #3d85c6; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">this</span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #7f6000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">and</span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #783f04; color: #fce5cd; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I'm</span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: magenta; color: #660000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">just</span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fce5cd; color: magenta; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">an</span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #b4a7d6; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">obnoxious</span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f4cccc; color: #660000; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">child</span><span style="background-color: #274e13; color: lime; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">.</span></div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
Let’s be absolutely clear: I have <u>nothing</u> against someone doing a biennale, and I have <i>no</i> need to cry over the hundred of thousands of euros (or millions) that will be spent on it, at all.<br>
<br>
It’s a project meant to attract tourists and to forge stronger relations in and create more visibility internationally to the Helsinki art scene. But these basis confuse me: I don't know what's particularly great about the scene, like I'm not saying it isn't, but no one ever bothers to state what they actually are excited about. Furthermore, I can't see what good things international recognition might bring <i>to art</i>.<br>
<br>
I get tourism though, that's super interesting, and marketing makes total sense to me too and I have nothing against it because I do it for living, but <i>could we think about these things in a way that would both compliment artistic thinking AND branding strategies</i>? <span style="background-color: #660000; color: #ea9999;">Because I feel that the current discourse diminishes art's creative potential to a monolithic facade, and the artists are left with the job of bringing in "vibrancy" to an otherwise uninspired project.</span><br>
<br>
Maybe this is so because artists are usually a little scared of and opposed against the commercial world, especially here in the North where grants come and go like Volt orders, and where art professionals want to hold on to the idea of art being an end to itself ("it says so in my master's degree certificate"). As I recently said, <a href="https://hampaat.blogspot.fi/2017/12/we-want-money-we-want-power-notes-on_19.html" target="_blank">it's ok to want power</a>! This want is in line with, well, over 100 years of revolutionary histories.<br>
<br>
So yes, I believe it's absolutely possible to do a little branding, promote the city's interests, and create exciting art all at the same time. But that requires we want something and talk about these desires, instead of just nodding along to seem we're playing ball. If we don't speak up, the most boring, mindless version of things will always win.</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
In Helsinki, <a href="https://hampaat.blogspot.fi/2017/12/feminist-forum-femf-group-exhibition.html" id="id_53a7_a9b6_6dd2_dc20" target="_blank">as I wrote last year</a> (see: "This is Where We Differ"), everyone will collaborate with everyone, unrelated to what each party really wants to do, because <span style="background-color: #f1c232; color: yellow;">to not collaborate is seen as act of war </span><span style="background-color: #b4a7d6;"><span style="color: cyan;">in this consensus-addicted Nordic city</span>.</span><br>
<br>
dear peers: do you seriously feel like a biennale is a good platform for your thinking? have you heard good things from small orgs collaborating with such things? do you think it will be a useful way to spend your very limited energies? is that what you want to do in life? if yes, cool, totally nothing wrong with that, just checking, hope you score some €s and get to do what you feel needs to be done.</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
and you know, <span style="background-color: #7f6000; color: #fff2cc;">sometimes i do visit biennials and it can be fun, just like the zoo if you can live with witnessing exploitation masked as conservation.</span> Personally, I don't feel it’s the same field in which i work and think and feel. I'm not into creating cages to show precious things to mass audiences.<br>
<br>
Let's end with a proverb: Museums and biennials are to the kind of art I'm into is like alcohol is to hanging out with friends: we might enjoy the former within the latter, but it should by no means the reason why we come together or if we do then it's just sad.<br>
<br>
bonus: <a href="https://theoutline.com/post/2941/vine-shutdown-one-year-later-christiana-gilles?zd=1" target="_blank">this article</a> by Ann-Derrick Gaillot about Vine stars moving on to new platforms explains the relation between form and content pretty well, check it out.<br>
<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPvoXd2r2IAqLd2bjrZWSHKA7egNxxBALjZWgUdLYYbej10dl_3BzPG8uxyORTcDphMtHfbbWZVrzfMutQxAmWK-eBzo8qO6LMs8BZInrVmMiJOwXC-bCQdLaF9MrtqGqL3CUbGvmrus0/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-01-23+at+11.12.35.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="screenshot from wikipedia, an image of an illustration for fables by Gustave Dor'e depicting a cat with a bell, titled "Who will bell the cat?"" border="0" data-original-height="662" data-original-width="1060" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPvoXd2r2IAqLd2bjrZWSHKA7egNxxBALjZWgUdLYYbej10dl_3BzPG8uxyORTcDphMtHfbbWZVrzfMutQxAmWK-eBzo8qO6LMs8BZInrVmMiJOwXC-bCQdLaF9MrtqGqL3CUbGvmrus0/s640/Screen+Shot+2018-01-23+at+11.12.35.png" title="screenshot from wikipedia, an image of an illustration for fables by Gustave Dor'e depicting a cat with a bell, titled "Who will bell the cat?"" width="640" id="id_6b2f_219a_f98_5414" style="width: 640px; height: auto;"></a></div>
<br></div>
<div>
<br></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-82286994652501718522018-01-15T12:08:00.000-08:002018-01-15T23:40:11.004-08:00CONCEPTUAL ART IS THE EX WHOSE CALLS YOU SHOULD NOT TAKE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl0vq-E3vU2fQxZlMogpen7fX1hdwyXjoEtBT4BDHtBjjFXUh4cdmF-fTflJ7QG8KswFSwoZWPb37CI4F52vOiTzcCTaCLLjFahUbDV40GXK1fD3KK5iUy95GZjVPBwLO70lgUcFEjSfY/s1600/stock.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="image of diving board with stock photo text" border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="520" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl0vq-E3vU2fQxZlMogpen7fX1hdwyXjoEtBT4BDHtBjjFXUh4cdmF-fTflJ7QG8KswFSwoZWPb37CI4F52vOiTzcCTaCLLjFahUbDV40GXK1fD3KK5iUy95GZjVPBwLO70lgUcFEjSfY/s1600/stock.jpg" title="image of diving board with stock photo text" id="id_8bee_c2b2_1cc9_ea6a" style="width: 520px; height: auto;"></a></div>
I<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> remember when Bruno Latour's "We Were Never Modern" got either translated to Finnish or started to do the rounds in Theater Academy in Helsinki, where I studied in 2000's. Maybe it was that book, or mostly its title (because we mostly read titles) that made us sceptical of modernism. (btw u don't need to know the book to continue reading)</span><br><br><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">me and my fellow chain-smoking students, disillusioned yet eager to please and be accepted, were already aware of how to dismiss, and also how to really be into things most people are not and to do this in a way that both insulates you from the world and makes you paranoid of your standings.</span><br><br><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">ok why am i writing we, let's just say i, but ok still i do feel like this was a shared sentiment. anyways so we needed something to blame and we chose modernism. we didn't choose (all of) our professors, nor the great white men who came before us because we couldnt bear the idea of breaking up with our first loves. i still wanted to love carl andre because i didnt yet know </span><a href="https://www.lareviewofbooks.org/article/carl-broke-something-on-carl-andre-ana-mendieta-and-the-cult-of-the-male-genius" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">who ana mendieta was</a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">.</span><br><br><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">hating modernism was the rebounce, the hookup, that simply made my horrible lover look more appealing, because he also hated him. that lover is called Conceptual Art. my friend put it well today when they said "conceptual art made it impossible to have stuff in the exhibition space without it becoming art". i dont know if it's true but that's exactly what bugs me. like people can't just come together and do stuff that's creative, fun, and subversive and potentially meaningless and very useful at the same time. art that is functional isn't necessary socialist realism.</span><br><br><font color="#ff1744" style="background-color: rgb(0, 229, 255);">although i would love some socialist real-ism in my life.</font><br><br><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">this is not a manifesto from which some hack can create a snub video piece with tilda swinton for museums who dont know any better but recognise production value when they see it. this is a soft break-up, the kind that makes both parties realise there's more to life than...ok i dont think conceptual art will never realise anything. it will count the visitors and call it a counting piece, after which it moves to count its money and not call you anymore because he's too busy hanging out with influencers.</span><br><br><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">maybe you get this maybe u dont. maybe u wana do art where you have an idea which you present in a way that makes sense to anyone who knows either the basics of modern art or then the very latest and rarest undercurrents of late-capitalist philosophical concepts spoken in rapidfire succession in some cafe in a capital city of your choosing.</span><br><br><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">i dont know. i am not living a life where i have the emotional space or the time to think too long about this. i dont have the regime that lends itself to deconstruction or deep critique. but it's ok or even if it wouldn't be, this is still real. these words are energy regardless and the way this line draws to it end resembles a diving board.</span><br><br><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">so what is wrong with conceptual art god i'm tired sorry. i am made tired by the demands of contemporary art to always be critical, to compare a to b, to think of the form but also of the context, to demand more from the technical execution, to remind my friends this was already shown earlier in Wien, to rush through an art fair giving snap judgements and feeling a sense of connection from our matching adjectives*. seriously, your project is not better than mine, there are no good and bad artists, there are just people at different stages in varying conditions.</span><br><br><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">i want an insurance that covers the emotional violence inflicted upon us by the institutions we work with. if you show art that requires animals to be killed because the artists wants to "question and examine the way we think about animals and the aesthetic governing these representations", you are not an animal lover, you know? If a conceptual artists demands you get ten tons worth of blood oranges to a square and you say yes even though you dont have the money and dont understand why the city you live in would need that, you create future depression that people below you will pay for with their burnouts and voiced but unheard resentments and morose blog posts.</span><br><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">please dont respect artists and their ludicrous blood orange ideas, or then let other people working in the building do what the fuck they like, too. the person in the lowest pay grade such have the same rights as the artist, if not then your institution is violent, and if you do shows that mention anything close to ethics, then it's also a hoax.</span><br><br><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">rly, i cant write art criticism anymore, unless someone starts to do something more than clever representations of discourses and questions without showing any intent to deal with those issues in any meaningful way in the space which they show these representations. i mean i know there are ppl doing that.</span><br><br><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">id like to set all my art world meetings at mcdonald's, because if you can't deal with that, you shouldn't be dealing anything in the first place. sounds petty i know, but i am way pettier in person.</span><br><br><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">*i really felt that connection it was real, regardless of all</span></span><br><br>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-57025482035084002662017-12-19T04:42:00.001-08:002017-12-19T04:49:59.196-08:00 WE WANT MONEY, WE WANT POWER: NOTES ON THE FINNISH GRANT SYSTEM<br />
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdmEl4lnPK3n-Tmc6EwkvAGG87pQVjjFjTlKz2iIWfC-qDNtrW03VQCn0LdHnypSiLTQH58PDFiLYbVJAlWpt6KlRBFs351Aevxl0jOpjSGJOSEMHnHd6OfZCc0x5y59fgs8wtxUdRaEM/s1600/collapse_for_grants.png" style="display: none;" /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdmEl4lnPK3n-Tmc6EwkvAGG87pQVjjFjTlKz2iIWfC-qDNtrW03VQCn0LdHnypSiLTQH58PDFiLYbVJAlWpt6KlRBFs351Aevxl0jOpjSGJOSEMHnHd6OfZCc0x5y59fgs8wtxUdRaEM/s1600/collapse_for_grants.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdmEl4lnPK3n-Tmc6EwkvAGG87pQVjjFjTlKz2iIWfC-qDNtrW03VQCn0LdHnypSiLTQH58PDFiLYbVJAlWpt6KlRBFs351Aevxl0jOpjSGJOSEMHnHd6OfZCc0x5y59fgs8wtxUdRaEM/s1600/collapse_for_grants.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kimmo Modig: Untitled (made in concert with the collective group show (HYPER)EMOTIONAL: YOU, EKKM, Tallinn, 2017)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<i>DISCLAIMER: This text is way incomplete. Anyone can blow my arguments down with one puff, I imagine. I am signalling those of you who feel the way I feel. Additionally, I am interested to discuss more concrete, albeit technical changes that could take place: For example, instead of giving out grants, foundations and others could simply hire people to do artistic work or research.</i><br />
<br />
Unlike almost anywhere else in the world, artists in Finland, like their colleagues in other Nordic countries, can access numerous grants that come from both private foundations and public funds. This is truly amazing and worth applauding for. I won't break down the numbers here, but the amount of open calls and money given out is staggering to say the least. Application deadlines give a rhythm to the year, a bit like seasonal work at farms. Artists post Facebook updates both when their number is called and when nothing gives. There are a bunch of deadlines in the Spring and then again come Fall. Sometimes we gather together to support each other in order to get the applications done. You can apply for anything from small 200-1000€ travel stipends to a full-time 1 to 5 years artist grant for 2300€ per month.<br />
<br />
But here's the thing. These grants don't, in most cases, lead to a larger change in the realities of the applicants, save for a temporary fix. When your funding runs out, you're back to where you started, back to competing with people who are 20 years older or younger than you. The only thing that's equal about it is that everyone's put into equally precarious situation. And since we're talking about art, there are no objective criteria to speak of.<br />
<br />
You could be wildly successful (as in having international museum shows that don't pay, for example) and still that would not mean you'll get funded. This highlights one part of the problem: foundations all rely on anonymous jurors who are usually renewed annually. As an applicant, you have no idea who will be deciding on your grant and what they value. I get why they do this, but I suspect if being open about the jurors would make people bribe them or otherwise corrupt the process. Foundations do offer guidelines for the applicants, but in the end it is up to the incognito reviewers to choose who they want to support. Their suggestions are then affirmed by the board, but I've never heard of them doing any changes to the lists provided by the called-in experts.<br />
<br />
There's no way for applicants to know if what they're doing will be awarded with a grant or not. If I as a reviewer (note: I've done this job for almost all of the foundations and public councils) feel ice-skating as art is the new thing and should be buttressed above everything else, then that's what's gonna happen. And then if you're a multi-disciplinary artist, a representative of a festival, or, say, a producer working for your town's cultural office, and you choose to read this as sign of times, thus shaping your next year's application to be more responsive to the current trend of ice-skating in order to keep your project running, there will be someone else reading your pleas this time around and deciding it's time to support oil painting instead. And so it goes.<br />
<br />
Even if you would be perfectly suited for the changing trends, the money you receive is not seed money. "Apuraha" in Finnish means literally "help money", the original idea being, I assume, that the grant helps you to do something, nudging you forward a little. But this is not how it works: you need to spend all the money you're given in a way that doesn't generate more money, and in almost all of the cases you cannot invest the money into something like real estate that would, for example, give your art organisation a more sustainable future.<br />
<br />
The deciding bodies handing out the grants tend to emphasize two things: the money they give is meant for non-profit activities, and that it's not allotted based on social reasons (ie. the applicant is poor and needs to pay their rent). Basically, the grant system stops you from being a capitalist while keeping you living in the capitalist reality of attention economy, where you need to prove yourself and rely on ever-fleeting grants indefinitely. Secondly, why else would anyone apply for money other than socio-economic reasons?<br />
<br />
You don't need to know economic theories by heart to understand that the only way up for the lower classes is by owning the means of your production, and/or the ability to collect rent (ie. accumulating money out of what you have already). By examining the grants system, it becomes evident how the art industrial complex works like any other of its kind: it gives people rope while keeping them under stress and tied down in their class position so they wouldn't take over or do anything to unbalance the neoliberal order and class positions. As a side product from keeping creatives in check, the art scene accumulates capital: rents to go up in neighborhoods with galleries, artists take over the functions of care work after the neoliberal regime has cut public services, and in some cases firms can culture-wash their reputation, and global tourism business attracts more clientele.<br />
<br />
I regularly receive grants. But I shouldn't say "receive" because what happens is I take them. And when I do, someone else can't have it, just like with higher education. I can take it because I'm suitable to play the part, not too strayed from the norm, not too impossible. And through such rituals as award ceremonies and affirmation letters printed on expensive-looking paper, we are made humble. We must always tell everyone how thankful we are that we were able to recei..take the grant. As exceptional the grants system is with all the extraordinary things it has made and is making possible, it is ultimately, for most parts, not doing anything to help the core problems and inequalities in our society. Should it? Could it?<br />
<br />
This would require a fundamental shift in thinking, and a re-positioning of the artistic work away from giving the society bonus points for being so civil as to support a handful of "special people" (ie. artists worth supporting of), towards localised, engaged work that thinks hard about sustainability and universal access to production and benefits, something which is actually taking place within some funded projects already.<br />
<br />
It would not be easy by any means, and I don't know how it would look like, nor am I actively pursuing it apart from writing this. But then the grants system as it stands today didn't just happen one day, but was part of a larger societal change and rooted in specific ideologies. By awarding money to certain people in society for something as abstract as being artists, the grants system seemed to have followed the global trends in the West to dismantle the welfare society and replace it with a neoliberal one, in which individuals are celebrated over equal opportunities and social security. Even if the people working in these institutions giving out grants would not share such right-wing values, as they almost never do in my experience, quite the opposite-I've met some of the most kindest people working tirelessly to advance the prospect of arts & sciences and civic discussion at large-, their institutions become complicit in the bigger scheme of things.<br />
<br />
Going to back to humility bit, it makes sense to point out that most foundations and public bodies won't pay you to review their applications. It is also deemed as an honor, or as taking one for the team. Problem is, it is not helping my team.<br />
<br />
Paging team: We need to stop lying to ourselves this is healthy and worth the anxiety, depression and seeing colleagues drop out. We must resist being complicit in a system that is catering to the ultra-competitive anti-welfare dream society of the right. Recent events in Finnish politics, from granting the wishes of neo-nazis and collaborating with them in human rights violations to the humiliation of unemployed citizens by cutting their subsidies should make it clear to anyone that we are already in the midst of an unspoken class war.<br />
<br />
The right simply doesn't want to label it such because for most of them, their whole idea of society is based on the idea of suppressing the dissent voices and people with random inclusion and benefits just enough so that business can go on as usual. For example, there will never be 100% employment because if there would be, the workers would have the upper hand in negotiations. When work is scarce (but not too scarce), it makes us grateful to have job in the first place. This makes us lower our standards when it comes to job benefits etc, while the exclusion of publicly funded safety nets and deteriotion of unions (sometimes of their own making) make us unwilling to go on strike. This logic is reflected in the art world, as well.<br />
<br />
Maybe you're a liberal leftie, or Green party voter, and you don't like the sound of class war, but if you think about the way the rich are taking the money from the poor through tax and subsidies cuts, almost everywhere in the world, what other term could come close to describing our reality?<br />
<br />
I am very glad to see there are still individuals and organisations willing to support the arts and sciences in Finland. But I believe we need to have a conversation about what the grant system adds up to, and what everyone wants. Here's my aims: I want long-term wealth and power to everyone who is being suppressed -some obviously more heavier than others- and wants to support the fight for a more just world. I don't want for anyone to live under constant stress caused by the arbitrariness of systems that decides for your fate, and by the rat race for the temporary chances held up in front of you. <b>I don't want to gamble, I want to burn down the casino.</b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-90068451101840561112017-12-17T13:04:00.001-08:002017-12-17T23:56:29.595-08:00FEMINIST FORUM (FEMF) GROUP EXHIBITION CURATED BY RAMINA HABIBOLLAH AND NAYAB IKRAM, 20-21 OCT, CABLE FACTORY, HELSINKI<br />
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCkKF_qWZZVcmInGWoKVIr36AQLpGxJJmNl1IMBL8ljHC55vaa4eEnAmc1Py0S7X7L4ZP5qzWrayIV9lAVBFuVAysVk-Nni4EGb5xWxcAVW2cj3tQ2YVTK-UuD2IC99D8oA3LwAFAXCho/s1600/Femf-installation_view.jpg" style="display: none;" /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCkKF_qWZZVcmInGWoKVIr36AQLpGxJJmNl1IMBL8ljHC55vaa4eEnAmc1Py0S7X7L4ZP5qzWrayIV9lAVBFuVAysVk-Nni4EGb5xWxcAVW2cj3tQ2YVTK-UuD2IC99D8oA3LwAFAXCho/s1600/Femf-installation_view.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Feminist Forum exhibition, installation view. Courtesy the artists. Image: Kimmo Modig" border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCkKF_qWZZVcmInGWoKVIr36AQLpGxJJmNl1IMBL8ljHC55vaa4eEnAmc1Py0S7X7L4ZP5qzWrayIV9lAVBFuVAysVk-Nni4EGb5xWxcAVW2cj3tQ2YVTK-UuD2IC99D8oA3LwAFAXCho/s1600/Femf-installation_view.jpg" title="Feminist Forum exhibition, installation view. Courtesy the artists. Image: Kimmo Modig" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Feminist Forum exhibition, installation view. Courtesy the artists. Image: Kimmo Modig</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>LOCAL?</b><br />
<br />
"not only is contemporaneity about the engagement with the urgent issues of the moment we are living out, but more importantly it is the moment in which we make those issues our own. That is the process by which we enter the contemporary."<br />
-Irit Rogoff: The Expanded Field<br />
<br />
"I don’t believe there are enough good people in the art world who speak on a level and think about legacy/about policy/who go to council meetings and have a worthwhile presence and do something without prioritising their own gains of being a Gap Yah-type, look I work with Real People in my art-type dickhead”, wrote the White Pube recently. Later on in the essay(1), they recommend art institutions to have obligatory local advisory boards: "With such boards, art spaces of all scales might be responsible and accountable then; social, local, good. their activity would be considered, wanted, attended, and shared. yep ok thats the art world i wanna see. can I have that for christmas please."<br />
<br />
If I wish for art to make sense locally, it’s worth to ask for whom art is usually made, then? Most shows I see are targeted for other artists & art pros, like the ones I’ve done myself because I have no idea how to talk to anyone else. Attempts to cater for larger audiences usually fail, as essentially no one (=”laymen”) cares enough to see something new, or perhaps, and most likely, the work was not really made with any understanding of any other audience than your peers.<br />
<br />
But I know so very little of audiences and communities to begin with. In this case, my point of view is that of a professional-seeming(?) art worker(?) who goes to see shows and then talks about them privately with their peers.<br />
<br />
And I wonder why most of my friends say they don't feel anything when they see art. The art we witness in Helsinki and elsewhere is almost always about showing that you can make “an art thing”. It is proof, as I’ve claimed elsewhere(456). There’s rarely any entrance into the work because the work is made to be acknowledged, not experienced.<br />
<br />
All this I say so I can lay the foundation for discussing <a href="http://www.femf.net/femf-art.html">the exhibition </a>mentioned in the title of this post so hold tight.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>MUSEUMS? (AGAIN...)</b><br />
<b><br />
</b> Also, and by way of reminding you I don’t hate museums, although I doubt you would care if your snap judgement on my snap judgements is balanced, and not that I was talking about museums this time, but anyways let’s set the record straight: no, it's not that museums should solve all the problems of art+audiences. Quite the opposite imho, I would love them to have the ability to focus on fighting forgetting, that is, doing archiving work (which then would allow you to dissect the ideologies guiding such enterprises, something that is way more urgent than to talk about being depressed by what’s on).<br />
<br />
For some reason, museums have been burdened with the task of being the main place you go for all things contemporary art here in Helsinki -maybe because this is such a small place and there is no discourse that would enable more analytical takes on the roles of different institutions, so it is very hard to avoid talking about museums when you talk about contemporary art.<br />
<br />
Or actually it is very easy to avoid talking about museums, just look at something else, like the FemF show I am slowly getting to here.<br />
<br />
---Which is so weird, that bit about having to talk about museums, because museum shows here very rarely have anything to do with the issues and ideas me and my colleagues deem pressing. No, we don't decide what is worthwhile in general, of course, but I am depicting my reality, so that you would understand where I'm coming from with this and how it potentially visualizes a larger contemporary art discourse. I don't see most museums and their personnel working with the same questions with me, whereas with my precarious colleagues who are critics, technicians, writers, whatnot, I feel a connection because it is based on a situation, a position, instead of a genre.<br />
<br />
<b>THIS IS WHERE WE DIFFER</b><br />
<b><br />
</b>And also why do Helsinki-based art institutions collaborate with each other when it's pretty obvious that the actual_people_working_in_these_institutions have vastly different, even if unpronounced aims?<br />
<br />
Why do independent, fiercely critical festivals, galleries etc. want to work with bigger institutions when they are looking for very different things?<br />
<br />
I mean, go to a bar with people who work for any highly visible and/or cool independent art org, and listen to them bleed their hearts out on how disappointed they are with these seemingly required collabs, and you will bloody well learn what the differences are.<br />
<br />
I must admit one reason I was positively surprised by the Femf group exhibition was there was no mention of the usual suspects Frame, Kiasma, University of Arts, Taike, Kone Foundation, etc. I mean of course I am not saying this was from the organisers’ part an act of opposing or turning down offers, how could I know, but merely am pointing this out as a visitor who reads the handouts and looks at the Facebook event texts and regards this sort of info as part of the experience.<br />
This fact made me feel hopeful, although I could just as well imagine the people doing this show wouldn't mind the collab/access because it means money and other resources, so obv this is not a clear-cut issue that somehow got "solved" here, or that there wouldn't be structural racism and the like in Finnish art institutions and everyone can just "choose" whether to collaborate/take the money or not.<br />
<br />
And lastly, this was an exhibition to go along the Feminist Forum that had a lot of other programme from talks to workshops within it, and from what I understood the Forum is produced with voluntary work. But what I saw was not just something on the side, a fringe event, but one of the most compelling exhibitions in a very long time.<br />
<br />
I've recently been reading a book edited by INCITE!, titled “The Revolution Will Not Be Funded - Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex” and I guess that has influenced me quite a bit in terms of understanding how support structures co-opt ideas and movements and energies and what sustainable alternatives are out there.<br />
<br />
What this collabo-reflex means in practice is that representatives from the same institutions are present in almost all of the boards, from festivals to artists' associations, to residency and grant juries. Because, you know, it’s “good” for networking to have someone from that museum or this money-laundering business amongst us. Everyone has to be ready to play ball with each other, leading to uninspired, numbingly polite-yet-eerie-cold atmosphere, where any issue gets quickly taken over by the formal, hegemonic production methods (and thus knowledge and value systems).<br />
<br />
<b>INCLUSION?</b><br />
<b><br />
</b> As Grace Kyungwon Hong has explained(9), inclusion is leverage for the capitalist, or any hegemonic system to protect the power balance, not to change it. By inviting a "suitable", acclaimed individual in, we can stop to think about literally everyone else who is still left out because now we have a visual representation from a given repressed minority. (This is way more clumsier put than how Hong phrased this but maybe you know what I mean.)<br />
<br />
On the other hand, "we" have this myth of supposedly needing to pull together, as some afterthought from art-as-nationalist interest that no one sincerely believes in, save for evangelists of entrepreneurial credo such as designer, artist Paola Suhonen(4, in Finnish), but it's still lurking very heavily everywhere in the Finnish intellectual scenery, nevertheless.<br />
<br />
But no one needs to pull together on everything imo. Save that for large-scale issues, like fair pay, human rights, and fighting fascism. I think it is crucial to know the difference between when and where to join forces, and for what causes, and when not to, because empty, habitual collaboration simply muddies the waters and makes it impossible to understand what we or you or I or whoever was trying to do in the first place.<br />
<br />
I want to find ways to cross over the limits of the cultural-economic boxes the neoliberal reality wants us to stay in, and find out larger societal connections. That would be brilliant, yes, instead of the aforementioned people-with-degrees-and-invites playing the game of performative inclusion. This I want, instead of watering down one’s agencies into a soggy compromise based on contrived locality forced in place to suit the needs of some puny grant the Arts Promotion Centre is wrangling in front of you.<br />
<br />
The mere fact that two things exist in Helsinki does not mean they need to collaborate, as much as we like to "meet to have meetings."(5) This kind of thinking comes from the same tainted well as measuring everything by audience numbers, treating institutional collaboration as an ends to itself, and the fantasy of knowing what’s going on because "Finland is so small you quickly get to know everybody"? Really, you know everyone? Who cleans your office and what was it that you said about actor-networks? When was the last time you saw art made by someone who doesn’t have 50+ FB friends in common with you? I am asking this from myself, as well, and I need to keep asking it ffs.<br />
<br />
But yeah so, more standing apart when it comes to doing your own thing and more coming together when it really matters we show the power in numbers.<br />
<br />
It is why sometimes the cost of making compromises is the losing of the impossible, the radically different way of that which does not figure in the current neoliberal logic or in your organisation's strategy. Hong brings up affect as on opposing force, quoting Kara Keeling in how it “points toward the ways that whatever escapes recognition, whatever escapes meaning and valuation, exists as an impossible possibility within our shared reality.”<br />
<br />
<b>OK SO THE SHOW ITSELF FINALLY</b><br />
<br />
What does impossible look like? Does it look like the exhibition curated by artists <a href="https://www.ramina.tech/">Ramina Habibollah</a> and <a href="http://nayabikram.squarespace.com/">Nayab Ikram</a>, which seemed at first glance a familiar affair with its removable white walls, photographs, few installations, a book on display, paintings, and videos? Finding the time and energy to open up to anything is hard, I feel, so you look at the simplest visual cues and make a quick categorisation and move on to think about eating something soon. I think I spend maybe 2 hours in the show, and around the second hour I started to overcome and leave behind my learned taxonomies and other preconceptions, as much as that is even possible, or desireable.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpQ7zt4apQ1IzJLlrjI0WErEvMKh6vkJQZjOtpZ5yvNBaddepvstb9TvQ2JaWK7IyekWb2rp02JI7YmQRiVTexY2VsvU5WSK7gFLDnqJL8sPuMt5l8BMR9JxhP5a0hWckTkZYWCv04U0Q/s1600/tekstikuva.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Nora Sayyad: Finding Forgiveness, 2017 (photobook). Courtesy the artist. Image: Kimmo Modig" border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpQ7zt4apQ1IzJLlrjI0WErEvMKh6vkJQZjOtpZ5yvNBaddepvstb9TvQ2JaWK7IyekWb2rp02JI7YmQRiVTexY2VsvU5WSK7gFLDnqJL8sPuMt5l8BMR9JxhP5a0hWckTkZYWCv04U0Q/s400/tekstikuva.png" title="Nora Sayyad: Finding Forgiveness, 2017 (photobook). Courtesy the artist. Image: Kimmo Modig" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nora Sayyad: Finding Forgiveness, 2017 (photobook). Courtesy the artist. Image: Kimmo Modig</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
For only two days, mere hours really, with the first day filled with performances I sadly missed, and the second day hosting talks by some of the artists, the exhibition was open at one of the spaces at Cable Factory in Ruoholahti, an eerie area of south-central Helsink, populated by successful IT companies, with apartment blocks scattered around the channel built there in the 90s, when the area started to be transformed from a warehouse area into a residential zone. I never enjoyed visiting Cable Factory: it feels like someone is cementing an idea what artistic labor should look like.<br />
<br />
When I went to visit the show on Saturday morning, it was still quiet (it got busier later on), and then a colleague showed up. We chatted a little. They were very impressed by the choice of videos and were hoping the curators would put together a screening later on (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1764909100478063/">which they did </a>because, well, isn’t it the right thing to do. Go see it, it's at <a href="http://www.th1rdspac3.com/">Third Space</a> in Punavuori, until Saturday 23rd of Dec 2017). The entire runtime of the videos was hours: I am not sure if it would've been possible to see them all during the weekend.<br />
<br />
That the show cannot be experienced at whole drives home an important point about knowledge and objectivity: You cannot have the full view. First sign of the impossible? This was similar in spirit with having Nora Sayyad's thesis or graduation work (opinnäyte), with photos of Sayyad's father and his family in Palestine and research on multicultural families at large, on display amongst the other pieces. One wouldn't read the thesis there and then, and I merely glanced it while running around trying to see "everything", but it felt like a useful thing to have there, like this someone could surely use this for something, this is real, lived knowledge. It managed to do that thing people seem to try to do with placing books in exhibitions: the suggesting of another piece of knowledge, to be experienced elsewhere, but accessed partly from this space, like a wormhole, or the echo of a refrain from another song.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj663WKVKnm6_zHT0_DHjs80VsFHSGtyqhptk0Vke1PupsNI-lvjTioqWCOryY87xj0Y_XUwElLAVyHyjZB_OADhSc-tNvl6jH7EiL9tCn2b_NOVq3y_972QMSgrr4Lu-Sljx4RImFt-yo/s1600/ManYau.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Man Yau: Planet HER-BB, 2017. In the background: Kuralay Kin: Woman Dancing, 2017. Courtesy the artists. Image by Kimmo Modig." border="0" data-original-height="441" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj663WKVKnm6_zHT0_DHjs80VsFHSGtyqhptk0Vke1PupsNI-lvjTioqWCOryY87xj0Y_XUwElLAVyHyjZB_OADhSc-tNvl6jH7EiL9tCn2b_NOVq3y_972QMSgrr4Lu-Sljx4RImFt-yo/s1600/ManYau.png" title="Man Yau: Planet HER-BB, 2017. In the background: Kuralay Kin: Woman Dancing, 2017. Courtesy the artists. Image by Kimmo Modig." /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i>Man Yau: Planet HER-BB, 2017.</i> In the background: <i>Kuralay Kin: Woman Dancing, 2017. </i>Courtesy the artists. <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Image by Kimmo Modig.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Aside from the videos, shown on two spots in the show, there were lot of drawings, photographs, and paintings. As much as I enjoyed looking at them, I couldn't stop hanging out with <a href="http://manyau.fi/">Man Yau's</a> porcelain sculpture "Planet HER-BB" (see pic above), which was like an oasis of mutating visual references I couldn’t quite place, or, say, study materials of a biology class from the year 2158. Having in the middle of the exhibition turned into a command center from which you navigate.<br />
<br />
Carmen Baltzar's video piece "GYPSY", from 2016, depicted white Finnish people talking about their preconceptions of Romani people. Sadly I didn’t have the time to see it in full, only for few minutes, but what I saw stayed with me: the casual ways you, if you belong to the/a norm, let yourself judge other people outside of this norm while seeing yourself as merely observing the world, the inherent violence of this rhetoric coming through on full force in Baltzar’s video piece.<br />
<br />
Even something as fleeting and easily unnoticeable as paintings from a workshop Globaalinuoret & FemF had organised together felt compelling, because the piece was swimming amongst the other, more "refined" works (as in, I imagine the workshop was a short one, perhaps not made to produce art only, whereas the other works I guess were made by practicing artists, but rly I don't know anything about the workshop this is just how I read it), exchanging some of the resonance of their immediacy for the gravitas of the more pronounced pieces.<br />
<br />
Those made-up juxtapositions between workshopping and working made (and makes) little sense as an interpretative device, something that become apparent with Shieko Reto's drawings, one of them detailing what seemed like a demonstration against Finnish government's necro-policy of forced sterilisation of transgender people. Reto’s drawings felt at the same time as just a thing one does on the side, and like a work that has been coming up, and lived through, for years. Earlier this year there was an eye-popping window painting by Reto in Kaisaniemi(1000).<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGgcTnTQ_RuJA942sxKPVOo1BdbtZd5qy715s3a1xVLfaqYauxwem8HyiWxiXZWAv-NpEhSjdufE1WESU9SQ1a3U4g8UgtRJ0QcB8O88t3psB2G1VrodYCuuWi4XFrRmwHnk956Ojhh9Q/s1600/shika.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Shieko Reto: HelzPride, 2017. Courtesy the artist. Image: Kimmo Modig" border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGgcTnTQ_RuJA942sxKPVOo1BdbtZd5qy715s3a1xVLfaqYauxwem8HyiWxiXZWAv-NpEhSjdufE1WESU9SQ1a3U4g8UgtRJ0QcB8O88t3psB2G1VrodYCuuWi4XFrRmwHnk956Ojhh9Q/s1600/shika.png" title="Shieko Reto: HelzPride, 2017. Courtesy the artist. Image: Kimmo Modig" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shieko Reto: HelzPride, 2017. Courtesy the artist. Image: Kimmo Modig</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I rarely experience shows through singular art works, but instead as an immersive encounter with multiple modalities, so I won’t usually write so much about specific pieces. And it would be exhausting to go through even half of the pieces in the FemF show.<br />
<br />
Additionally, very rarely an aesthetic enters my body with such decisiveness that I cannot do anything but fall in love. And I don’t even think that phenomenon as some applaudable feat, more than simply a sign that me and the artist have similar class/race/gender experiences or taste or something something. We all need to hear the chorus sometimes, of course, so like anyone else I enjoy those moments of deep (or shallow) resonance. I like that feeling but there’s very little I could say about that, or?<br />
<br />
This time, I wasn’t even thinking about this whole did-I-felt-it-in-my-stomach -trope so much, because the FemF exhibit was one of those shows that make all the works in it shine brighter (meaning the works didn't have to compete for your attention if that makes sense), instead of dimming their power in order to hammer home some savvy curatorial concept.<br />
<br />
Not that there wasn't a concept. It was clearly spelled out that the exhibition displays works made by racialised artists (or artists of color). I understood the curating had been done by combining different approaches: there was an open call, and additionally they handpicked some of the artists, especially friends whose works they wanted to show, plus there was some collaboration with Koltuor, an "Instagram based gallery where we want to highlight and celebrate non-white artists, writers, poets, performing artists and filmmakers mainly in Scandinavia", who did the graphic design.<br />
<br />
It was possible to think to whom this show was for and what it set out to do, but this info was put forth in a way that allowed the exhibition to do other things, too, and people experiencing and visiting the show could then set their coordinates accordingly in relation to where the show was located on an intersectional map.<br />
<br />
This exhibition, for me, was also an example of how the method in itself doesn't dictate the potential of the results (I could complain about open calls in general for weeks on end) but how you implement it, and what you are trying to do with the method you’ve chosen or found yourself working with.<br />
<br />
What a joy it is to stroll around in an exhibition that trusted its artists while having a very clear, and stated, agenda governing it. Maybe the most important thing to get right really is your reasons for doing something.<br />
<br />
---OK so yes I am using somebody else's labor to further my own claims. That's what I tend to do with art, which in all honesty has no intrinsic value for me (I think?), only use value. Art works almost always mean something to me only after I have figured out how I can use them (or vice versa), or understand how they are being used by someone. So for example this exhibition became a companion piece to some stuff I’ve been thinking about and going through lately.<br />
<br />
Obviously I wasn't getting something out from all of the works, but why would that matter? What is that even, like sitting comfortably on each sofa at a furniture store? In my mind, the show would have not been better or worse had you change one work for another.<br />
<br />
I think the curator is always the only person who loves everything in the show they have put together, while the rest of us like what we like.<br />
<br />
Why do I say some other work wouldn’t make the show different? Because the curators and everyone involved in the FemF show managed to create a temporary situation, a system*, really, in which everything placed in it became enforced with vitality.<br />
<br />
The thinking, energy, and lived experiences that goes into making a show is what protects it and gives it its aura. And if this protective ritual fails, then there’s nothing an art work, press release, installation pics or online hype could change.<br />
<br />
<b>EMOTIONS</b><br />
<br />
This is what happens when I live through an exhibition: My emotions measure the distance between what I want and what the show seems to be. Then, I need to either accept the show or deny it. I can then either carry it with me to future situations (accept it), or try to leave it behind (deny it). But the latter is sort of ruled out at this point, because the show, like any experience, refuses to be left behind without strings, or slime, or threads, or cords attaching it to me.<br />
<br />
Whatever happens next in my life, the show hangs on, usually through negation, or as a shadow, or a ghost, because I was there already, I can not not be there anymore. But if I accept it, then I endorse it, protect it, or maybe wear it out so as to make you think it’s been with me for a while, like a denim jacket.<br />
<br />
Sometimes, the distance between myself and the show is too big, and I don’t even try working at it. I walk out, I forget it, only a very feeble thread hanging loose from my mind.<br />
<br />
In the FemF case, the distance I needed to travel to accept the show varied, but finally the way in was provided by artists whose work I already knew, as is often the case. The first thing I did was I sat down to look at an engaging documentary video about the activist-artist group Mahoyo and their travels & projects, which was kind of advertisement-y as in selling something to me, but that was precisely what I found curious and nicely conflicting and kind of real. Then a video by artist <a href="https://www.sepidehrahaa.com/#!">Sepideh Rahaa</a> followed but I thought well I like Rahaa's work already so let's see what else is there and moved on to look at paintings and such, deciding to carry this show with me where ever I'd go next.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUTXB6POuj6bStNjDzTRX7d_wsP7LpV5LjpJi5kGQYu_azpzwag287iQMF3jjf6wB4IRcnU5lpurhkrjzBTxGaVr-S7EQjFT4tBveeem-WGzTlTTsiT99MEx14Geebe2VEO5LTiqHP-hY/s1600/stilli.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Mahoyo: The Mahoyo Project, 2015 (video). Courtesy the artists. Image: Kimmo Modig" border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="700" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUTXB6POuj6bStNjDzTRX7d_wsP7LpV5LjpJi5kGQYu_azpzwag287iQMF3jjf6wB4IRcnU5lpurhkrjzBTxGaVr-S7EQjFT4tBveeem-WGzTlTTsiT99MEx14Geebe2VEO5LTiqHP-hY/s400/stilli.png" title="Mahoyo: The Mahoyo Project, 2015 (video). Courtesy the artists. Image: Kimmo Modig" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mahoyo: The Mahoyo Project, 2015 (video). Courtesy the artists. Image: Kimmo Modig</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<i>“We will follow any hint of energy, at least for a little while. When something happens, we swarm toward it, gaze at it, sniff it, absorb its force, pour over its details, make fun of it, hide from it, spit it out, or develop a taste for it. We complain about the compulsion to participate. We deny its pull. We blame it on the suburbs and TV and ourselves. But we desire it too, and the cure is usually another kind of swarming, this time under the sign of redemption: a mobilization for justice, a neighborhood watch committee, some way of keeping our collective eyes open. Something to do.” </i><br />
-Kathleen Stewart, “Ordinary Affects”<br />
<br />
<b>HAVING THE ENERGY</b><br />
<br />
One particularly enjoyable thing about this exhibition was its size. Even though it was a group show with a set concept, it didn’t require tons of intellectual-emotional-physical labor to go through it -not to say the works would have not been complex or worth diving deep into, or that I "got" it all, but that everything was not overly complicated merely for its own sake.<br />
<br />
I mean it is the dark season in Finland, 24/7 cognitive capitalism reigns over everything, and everyone I know is tired. When you create a show, the amount of info/triggers/cues you put into it for viewers to digest tells us what kind of life (diet, schedule, abilities) you expect the audience to lead, you know, in order to have the surplus energy and cultural capital necessary to take in your vision. Maybe that should be spelled out at exhibition entrances?<br />
<br />
--But like this is coming from a person who just wrote a long winding freewheeling text so---<br />
<br />
In general, not having chairs while showing long videos is a way of saying you must be healthy enough to stand here for 30-60 minutes to watch my art without losing your concentration. But since the videos in this show were shown as collections (and there were a few chairs there), I didn’t feel them imposing a certain kind of spectatorship onto me. It was more like a YouTube a playlist, like here are the names, take the handout home and look them up, or alternatively see what you have time to see now, and then do what you want. And the fact there is now a screening of those work is great news.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhayCxK26zb0E4jGmxWqqEnGLSO5EE3yTNR-wq1UJiAOTtfBHbmoOV-BWwWo68dfbGK6bdtsokK-8yIXDtWeogICj6EI2AVq8kq6XnOpOEz78ATlCIfcWSde1f139LmdUkjSv8qLLzpZvk/s1600/carllinne.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Jon Ely: People who deserved to be on the Swedish hundred-crown bank note instead of Carl von Linné, 2017. Installation shot. Courtesy the artist. Image: Kimmo Modig" border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhayCxK26zb0E4jGmxWqqEnGLSO5EE3yTNR-wq1UJiAOTtfBHbmoOV-BWwWo68dfbGK6bdtsokK-8yIXDtWeogICj6EI2AVq8kq6XnOpOEz78ATlCIfcWSde1f139LmdUkjSv8qLLzpZvk/s1600/carllinne.png" title="Jon Ely: People who deserved to be on the Swedish hundred-crown bank note instead of Carl von Linné, 2017. Installation shot. Courtesy the artist. Image: Kimmo Modig" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jon Ely: People who deserved to be on the Swedish hundred-crown bank note instead of Carl von Linné, 2017. Installation shot. Courtesy the artist. Image: Kimmo Modig </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnTCvEIfaJelA31EWVHHVR_7pJHjBBjynYeDi91KXd9wqh7QnnVFsVMeIzLsV6E6ukzLtZTvfPkWO06FTIGKrE01c-C6SSD4JoqGqfOeToSr_5TobSAAyT0qpHEoFPFE41nuV1TYSC-O8/s1600/kuva.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Jon Ely: People who deserved to be on the Swedish hundred-crown bank note instead of Carl von Linné, 2017. Installation shot. Courtesy the artist. Image: Kimmo Modig" border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="650" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnTCvEIfaJelA31EWVHHVR_7pJHjBBjynYeDi91KXd9wqh7QnnVFsVMeIzLsV6E6ukzLtZTvfPkWO06FTIGKrE01c-C6SSD4JoqGqfOeToSr_5TobSAAyT0qpHEoFPFE41nuV1TYSC-O8/s400/kuva.png" title="Jon Ely: People who deserved to be on the Swedish hundred-crown bank note instead of Carl von Linné, 2017. Installation shot. Courtesy the artist. Image: Kimmo Modig" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jon Ely: People who deserved to be on the Swedish hundred-crown bank note instead of Carl von Linné, 2017. Installation shot. Courtesy the artist. Image: Kimmo Modig</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Artists in the FemF show: Aka Niviâna, Ana Gutieszca, Carmen Baltzar, Caroline Suinner, Crystal Z Campbell, Diana Soria Hernandez, Ding Yi, Dzamil Kamanger, Elise Mattisson Chue, Jay Mar Albaos, Jon Ely, Karoline Montero Araya, Kemal Koçak, Kuralay Kin, Lolo Arziki, Mahoyo, Man Yau, Mona Eid, Müge Yildiz, Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Nora Sayyad, Razan Abou Askar, Saadia Hussain, Sabah Ejaz, Sepideh Rahaa, Shieko Reto, Vishnu Vardhani.<br />
<br />
1 = <a href="http://www.thewhitepube.co.uk/local-advisory-boards">http://www.thewhitepube.co.uk/local-advisory-boards</a><br />
4 = <a href="https://areena.yle.fi/1-4158535">https://areena.yle.fi/1-4158535</a><br />
456 = <a href="http://kimmomodig.com/themes/">http://kimmomodig.com/themes/</a><br />
9 = Grace Kyungwon Hong - Death beyond Disavowal: The Impossible Politics of Difference (introduction + chapter 2)<br />
5 = <a href="https://youtu.be/Z0ndtYaCRO0?t=4m58s">https://youtu.be/Z0ndtYaCRO0?t=4m58s</a><br />
1000 = <a href="http://shiekoreto1.blogspot.fi/2017/01/genderhuman-jan-25-march-2017.html">http://shiekoreto1.blogspot.fi/2017/01/genderhuman-jan-25-march-2017.html</a><br />
* = for more on how exhibitions could be understood as systems, see and interpret Reza Negarestani’s essay Frontiers of Manipulation as a piece on that topic, if you want, albeit it talks about material organisation and conceptual modelling but I think it could apply for what I am saying here, but maybe it's worth to elaborate on a wholly other review.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comHelsinki, Finland60.169855699999992 24.9383791000000259.663417699999989 23.647485600000021 60.676293699999995 26.229272600000019tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-41224629985807746802017-11-30T06:35:00.001-08:002017-11-30T11:28:19.649-08:00111X & JOHANNES EKHOLM & MAN YAU at SINNE, HELSINKI, Oct 14 - 29, 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQL0P85VQ4iR90CVHp7Cey15olyFCmKYxTz96z_XRB57TKz2JncP6B2kwWCRl2ECrAKznQ798M0KFa10roVS8xAFNA2CvGFYoYttRZC4ZSN9ZPl3xvdPX42I7qnNY7031Kj3jhyYLUGF4/s1600/03-pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image from Sinne gallery, courtesy of artists, pic by Kimmo Modig" border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQL0P85VQ4iR90CVHp7Cey15olyFCmKYxTz96z_XRB57TKz2JncP6B2kwWCRl2ECrAKznQ798M0KFa10roVS8xAFNA2CvGFYoYttRZC4ZSN9ZPl3xvdPX42I7qnNY7031Kj3jhyYLUGF4/s320/03-pic.jpg" title="installation shot with text" width="320" /></a></div>
THE SETUP<br />
<br />
Last month, I sat down amidst vintage Artek chairs, Genelec speakers, and a selection of house plants, all enclosed in a room-inside-a-room at Sinne gallery. Fluorescent lights above me were occasionally flickering in sync with the audio, trying their best to animate the makeshift, deadened space. A 90-minute dystopic-utopian radio play, taking place "fifteen minutes from now", in the vein of the British TV show Black Mirror, was playing.<br />
<br />
Afterwards, a staff member at the gallery was happy to see I stayed for the full length of the piece. I imagine 90 minutes is a lot to ask for most, but then I was there to write this. Work work work. To be honest, I wasn't there all the time, but went online to vent my frustration. Aargh. I don't have a smartphone but I had my computer with me and it had Sinne's Wi-Fi stored in it from the time our band played there a few months ago.<br />
<br />
Whereas Black Mirror -and no I won't drag this comparison throughout- looks at how technology influences (mostly white, middle-class) social relations, "There Is A Light..." imagines the desires and potentialities of Helsinki-based precariat after the current order has gone up in flames in an activist uprising.<br />
<br />
The exhibition itself is two-fold: there's the sound piece, and then there's everything else, which is credited to artist and sculptor Man Yau. The broken-beats, post-club bass-heavy music in the radio play is produced by 111X. In a puff-cum-interview(1), the artists said the visual setup should remind audiences that the fictional world of the radio play, in which an actress is receiving a state award while the parliament is being taken over by protestors, is not unlike ours. Choosing audio as the primary medium is an apt choice, as it frees you from having to come up with a visual stand-in for all the ideas. The way out from the muddy waters of representation is through the immersive, physio-hallucinogenic medium of sound, perhaps.<br />
<br />
OK so I have no idea how to say this other than like: it seems as if the exhibition wanted us tell ourselves that we, both the audience and the creators of the exhibition, know what is wrong in the world, and that this exhibition exists in that same world. The nod, the wink.<br />
<br />
What is it about artists or our working conditions that make us put things into space and will them into meaning what we think they should mean? And if I, as a spectator, subscribe to this meaning, for example by reading the handout text and deducing that the beat-up BMW must symbolise crony capitalism, what does this process do to me exactly, apart from granting me cultural access to a set of symbols & concepts, and before that, making me desire for that make-believe access in the first place? What would happen if I wouldn't agree to accept the presentation of design furniture as a sign of anything else but, I dunno, a successful partnership with the companies mentioned in the thank you notes? As proof of labor? Artists & co always say you're free to interpret the work to your liking but no one ever tells you how you actually can do that, and what doing so would mean to the discourse we're in.<br />
<br />
POLITICAL ART<br />
<br />
Should we categorise "There is a light...", jarringly, as political art, then how is it different from the works of Jani Leinonen and Riiko Sakkinen, for example, whose works have gathered vast amount of criticism (if you're not aware of these events unfolding in Finnish art, perhaps cut a few paragraphs)? This might seem like a calculated rebuttal, but risking that I still think the comparison is one that must be made in order to clarify these terms so we understand what we are talking about here. What is the difference between this and that kind of art, if they both borrow their momentum and raison d'être from the political (for lack of a better term)?<br />
<br />
As a tactic, it reminds me of highbrow music journalism. Pop music thinkpieces seem to be based on the notion that since they tackle globally worshipped, mega-successful artists, the writing must be important, too.(0) Of course, most of the time it absolutely is not meaningful to anyone outside pop criticism believers, as is the case with art and its priesthood, as well.<br />
<br />
Obviously, this is not about the merits of pop journalism: it's just that the topic you choose does not elevate or justify your writing per se. People might care about object A, but it does not follow they care about somebody talking about A. The talk in itself is simply another object with which one needs to create a relationship, or not.<br />
<br />
Referencing political events or struggles won't add to the weight an art work has in the cultural sphere, then (something the Sinne show doesn't exactly do, though the script contains a lot of quotes from activist-friendly literature etc). Although it kinda adds. What can happen is that the theme itself creates a certain type of aura around your practice: you might have better chances at getting grants, be featured on serious panels, people perhaps deem you as a person worth considering seriously, all that.<br />
<br />
Also, no one ever criticises such works unless they're blatantly ignorant, as has been the case with the countless numbers of "refugee-inspired" art made by white Finnish artists touring the topic in their careers. But when, for example, an artist makes an informed work about, say, fascism during a specific period in Finnish history, the cultural sphere ceases to address its aesthetic or artistic merit. It becomes a monument for being right, and for a shared leftist/liberal/critical values (which I share, too). And since this monument is categorised as art, not science, for example, no one will check if the sources hold, there is no peer review system, and so on. We are prone to think the artist is right and so we simply salute the effort, instead of analysing it critically. (But I can't help but to add <i>we need these monuments</i> sometimes, you know, just to have <i>something</i>?)<br />
<br />
Still, nothing stymies discussion as combining poetic license with morally proofread topics. Again, no, I am not saying one shouldn't do such works, or that they couldn't work just fine in some cases. What I am trying to argue for here is how so-called political art is being received, and what the choice of content might mean to their reception and cultural mileage. This goes back to the earlier remark about putting a thing in an art space and forcing meaning onto it. We must be able to look beyond that gesture, to see what really happens when the work goes out into the world, and gets mixed up with worldliness.<br />
<br />
USING ART<br />
<br />
Though why wouldn't the act of providing information be enough? (ok so this is a tangent way removed from the Sinne piece already just fyi)<br />
<br />
Can't I just accept that a move like that is a smart, cold-blooded hijacking of the medium of art for saying something more pressing? And why would I even care if someone does use art to simply disperse some intel?<br />
<br />
I mean, I have no desire to "defend" art from anything. I also want to see our current world order up in flames, and art is, as Man Yau and Johannes Ekholm pointed out, complicit. But then I've almost never learned anything from art that that informs me. If I've been made to do so, I've forgotten all the facts on my way home, just like how my tears inflicted by the narco-optics of a Hollywood flick dry before I've managed to exit the cinema.<br />
<br />
So I guess if you do appropriate art for something else, then you have to go all the way in, and change not just the content but the conditions of its production, and not simply commit to the tried exhibition practices, artist careers, accepting of group shows, keynotes, and awards, maybe?<br />
<br />
In order to set the stage for a meaningful analysis, artists need to recognise similarities between their activities, so we can understand what these concepts mean, as I stated earlier. As much as more in-the-know artists like to set themselves apart from the ones they hate, I can't see any real difference between, say, Alfredo Jaar's empty slogan-heavy posturing and that of the celebrated, intellectually more "mature" artists with up-to-date vocabulary, themes, and subjects. I'm talking to myself here, as well. I want to learn to understand similarities so I can defend the making of a difference.<br />
<br />
Just as I feel that criticising the instrumentalisation of art, most recently by Anna Tuori and Aleksis Salusjärvi(2), rings a little hollow, because using art to get things done is not the problem, at all. If you need to stop an environmental exploitation venture by a predatory company and the museum can be of help, of course you do it. Art spaces and workers are real things living in a real world, so of course it's ok to act accordingly. Instead of defending autonomy, I'd like to talk about how you can instrumentalise your practice in a meaningful way. Wouldn't it be healthier to start from the fact we are always complicit, subjective, subjected, and operating in a web of connections, dependencies, and agencies, than to try to defend some 20th century avant-garde dream of autonomy which really ever made sense if you were the heir of a rich family in Italy, driving fast cars and being high all the time?<br />
<br />
The problem is never the media and forms in themselves. I think we should look at the institutional execution of the work, ie. how it is embedded in and entangled with its own context, from the salaries of everyone working towards making the work happen, to the affective-intellectual connections it draws, and what are the values it either consciously or unwillingly furthers. Who do you work with, who are you talking to.<br />
<br />
I'M LOVIN' IT<br />
<br />
Narrowing my interpretation of the work at Sinne as politically mindful but ultimately ineffective miming routine is a disservice to the work. The audio piece comes off as engaging, fun, and refreshing, when you forget this political art label bs I've gone on about here.<br />
<br />
First of all, the play is not trying to be well made. It's overarchingly exuberant, and as asuch breaking from the tradition of "good work", something I salute. Sure, the artists are connected enough to get well-known actors &co to read the lines, and they are showing it in Sinne. More so, it's hard to imagine any Helsinki-based art institution saying no to this trio (this was, I understood, a commissioned piece by Pro Artibus, the association/foundation funding Sinne), but I'm sure that has happened and will happen too, sobecause nothing in this faux-meritocratic nightmare neoliberal art world makes sense and everyone is always going way down or up without a second's notice and everyone is paranoid of everyone else, while some of us have decided to judge anyone who dares to complain about these velocities, ultimately denying the intersectionalist power of tears.<br />
<br />
But anyways so the work is dirty, the sound design is sometimes very tongue-in-cheek (there's a lot of eerie industrial wind-ish ambience), the acting is all over the place, the text too goes to places without worrying too much about narrative credibility or anything, really. I just needed to relax a little first and take off my usual pair of POLITICAL ART IS SO PROBLEMATIC AAAARGH glasses. It just that everything is politics already, everything is capitalised so I might as well enjoy myself experiencing this work.<br />
<br />
MORE POLITICAL ART<br />
<br />
OK I'll rage about political art some more now. For most parts, it feels like campaign rhetoric familiar from elections. And just like in politics, in art it is the actions that (should) count. But then, what are real actions in art? I feel my take on this is patchy, and I haven't really grasped this in any particularly deep way, but my gut feeling says art's political potential is in dealing with the politics of art itself, stealing art as a platform in its entirety for completely different means, or working along other non-art-related actors in the long-term, but isn't that pretty standard? I will leave it here to show where I am at. ++I'll try to follow up with this real actions gambit next time when I will hopefully write about a group exhibition that was on for two days as part of Feminist Forum.<br />
<br />
So were the actions "real" in this show at Sinne? For me, the answer lies in the space: did the work gain any vitality from the context of a gallery? That's a boring question. Let's try something more suited for the times: did I feel something? If I didn't, is there something wrong with me, should I learn to feel more, or differently?<br />
<br />
Is there any way under late capitalism to write a blog like this as a gesture of friendship, or are these things always about envy, belittling another artist, competition, or accelerating knowledge production to keep this machine called art world in motion? What does anticapitalist criticism look like? Is it an act of solidarity to take something seriously and go out your way to write about it, or is it always just careerism? What happens when I meet Man Yau or Johannes Ekholm again in Helsinki? Do they think I'm any less scared or tired than they are? Do I? Am I?<br />
<br />
Do you? What makes you want to stand on the side of the ring reading this? What should an anticapitalist spectator do? Should we all just go back to the evasive, invisible, yet deeply political artistic practice of David Hammons, who for all their life has done the most etheral-but-super-concrete, unsellable-yet-totally-sold-out, mysterious-but-pedestrian, hobbyish-yet-professional, silly-tho-political art that I am (made) aware of (what made me know these things, what are the conditions guiding my references)? Negri & Hardt, two philosophers who have written books that you shouldn't feel like you should read them ---screw it live your life, have argued for the abandonment of institutions such as museums, so should we? Why isn't this audio work being played to audiences from car stereos at a parking lot? What do the artists want from the gallery? Or from us, the gallery goers? To wake up? To see you and your knowledge?<br />
<br />
How is this show any different from my own show at Helsinki Art Museum's gallery, which was an exercise on entry-level conceptual art? Should we raise or lower the standards? I think, don't I, that we should all be hobbyists and stop doing any kind of art that requires support, gallery spaces, or any other compromises towards the white anti-queer hetero matrix called the normative society, in which art plays the role of the moderate joker so "everyone" can feel they're all right and nothing is too subversive, personal, or weird. I wish it would be that easy. I wish "no" was less expensive.<br />
<br />
This I think is true: either you believe that the site of contemporary art (museums, galleries, etc) is worth fighting over, as Irene Campolmi argues, following Chantal Mouffe and sort of counter to Hardt&Negri(4), or you don't. If you don't, then working in art begins to feel overtly pointless. Then the solution is not to insert so-called political content into the art works as a means to signal that these are the real issues that are more important than aesthetics and whatever. For if you do that, it's such a nihilistic, un-beautiful act that I will leave the room, because while it's easy to point out the other, more urgent things we should work on than the politics of the exhibition space, then I as a viewer can't help but to think "then why are you here? And why did you invite us?"<br />
<br />
In the end, this had little to do with the exhibition in the title, as often is the case. But the radio play is now in Soundcloud(5), go listen to it, I think it really is wonderful, but it took me three listens to get into it, ie. I am not busy.<br />
<br />
0 = <a href="https://www.theringer.com/music/2017/11/16/16666306/taylor-swift-poptimism-2017">https://www.theringer.com/music/2017/11/16/16666306/taylor-swift-poptimism-2017</a><br />
1 = <a href="http://editmedia.fi/pitkat/lainauksia-ilman-lainausmerkkeja/">editmedia.fi/pitkat/lainauksia-ilman-lainausmerkkeja/</a><br />
2 = <a href="https://nuorivoima.fi/lue/essee/aikamme-estetiikka-kapitalistinen-realismi">https://nuorivoima.fi/lue/essee/aikamme-estetiikka-kapitalistinen-realismi</a><br />
4 = <a href="http://www.irenecampolmi.com/uploads/7/0/5/4/70545307/campolmi_icom.pdf">http://www.irenecampolmi.com/uploads/7/0/5/4/70545307/campolmi_icom.pdf</a><br />
5 = <a href="https://soundcloud.com/johannes-ekholm/there-is-a-light-that-never-goes-out">https://soundcloud.com/johannes-ekholm/there-is-a-light-that-never-goes-out</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-8641968459714820962017-11-08T22:41:00.002-08:002017-11-09T00:28:17.052-08:00DIEGO BRUNO, JAMES PREVETT at SIC/RULER, Sep 9 - Oct 8, 2017<div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<b><span style="background-color: #660000; color: #cccccc; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7CWpes8WkLznf0Oe8xWWw-F6bmJ9LGQPNmQm6KturujIbPJ2rHE-g5ghSHRjyKzzoXzOzmIty9cK4mjR1mQdfaLDeisU5j26zHX7CfeP7wO1syLutVCM9HENVsDsqeO7SxzDKLXLSX1w/s1600/post02-image-fine.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Diego Bruno James Prevett SIC" border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7CWpes8WkLznf0Oe8xWWw-F6bmJ9LGQPNmQm6KturujIbPJ2rHE-g5ghSHRjyKzzoXzOzmIty9cK4mjR1mQdfaLDeisU5j26zHX7CfeP7wO1syLutVCM9HENVsDsqeO7SxzDKLXLSX1w/s320/post02-image-fine.png" title="Diego Bruno James Prevett SIC" width="320" /></a></div>
<b><span style="background-color: #660000; color: #cccccc; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="background-color: #660000; color: #cccccc; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">THE SETTING</span></b><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q=j%C3%A4tk%C3%A4saari&iax=images&ia=images">Jätkäsaari</a> is a new residential area in central Helsinki that looks like a more sombre Copenhagen. The scandi topping of primary colours and subtle asymmetrical quirks are there, but life is yet to be downloaded to the grid, as is the case with most suburbs in Finland. But then I don't live there so how could I know.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">The name Jätkäsaari translates to "Dude Island". something the abhorrent, mammoth sculpture of a pissing little boy next to Verkkokauppa megastore wants you to remember. It's by artist Tommi Toija, and titled "Bad, Bad Boy". In the radio play ”There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”, written by Johannes Ekholm, the protagonists marvel said megastore in flames, along with the statues of Finnish nationalist heroes of the right, in a nod toward the removal of confederate monuments across the US. The play was part of a <a href="http://sinne.proartibus.fi/en/event/tialtngo-2/">show</a> Ekholm did with Man Yau and 111x, and I am trying to write about that soon.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Aside from the three galleries, SIC, Huuto, and Rankka, the Jätkäsaari area is home to West Harbour, with its mega-cruisers, Helsinki-Tallinn ferries, and the hoards of tourists who try to fathom a way to the city centre from the Ballardian, grey surroundings. I’d be surprised to find out the galleries would still be here in five years, after completing their duty of injecting the neighbourhood with cultural vibrancy to attract bussinesses and tenants.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">In addition to running their own programme, SIC serves as a new home to <a href="http://rulerspace.com/index.php?/now/diego-bruno/">Ruler</a>, a mobile gallery project for lack of a better description, initiated by artists Mikko Kuorinki and Diego Bruno, the latter currently having a show there, whilst the former is showing in Helsinki Art Museum's gallery.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">You wouldn't blame them for it, but both the artists running Ruler and SIC as a gallery represent the kind of visual art that is regarded support-worthy in Finland. The heavyweight grant-giver and art policy game-changer Kone Foundation has supported SIC in the creation of the extended makeshift space for Ruler within its premises. Currently Kone also supports Kuorinki's artistic practice (it said so in the handout at HAM). Bruno's exhibition notes tells us the show is supported by Kone, Art promotion Centre Finland, AVEK (an organisation supporting audiovisual art that gets its money from royalties), and Helsinki International Artist Program. As everyone knows, these currents come and go, especially so when the money is coming in from foundations that rotate their jurors annually, creating even more instability to an already precarious system. I bring all of this up to shed light to the infrastructure of the art ecosystem here in Helsinki.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">I've worked with Kuorinki a few times. <i>EDIT: Kuorinki mentioned on Twitter that I did also participate in a Ruler-organised <a href="http://rulerspace.com/index.php?/now/helsinki-group/2/">group show</a> curated by Valentinas Klimasauskas.</i> I wrote about a show by Happy Magic Society, a group Kuorinki's part of together with performance artist Essi Kausalainen, for Alkovi gallery's catalogue(0). Before that, I wrote a text for another show Kuorinki was in, at Oksasenkatu. People running SIC once sort of asked me to do something there, but this never materialised. Once I was with a friend in Corona bar, where artists tend to go after an opening. Me and my friend were both crying for some reason when the people from SIC suddenly stormed our table asking what do I do nowadays since they haven't seen me around, encouraging me to propose something. Bruno I don't know, apart from one or two chance meetings at not openings but somewhere else. I recently visited Prevett at their studio.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Bruno's previous work was a 20-minute video work titled "<a href="http://www.av-arkki.fi/en/works/galindez_en/">Galindez</a>". It got its name from a theatre play titled El Señor Galindez, written by an Argentinian psychoanalytic-cum-playwright in the 70's. The video unearths the connections between institutionalised violence, and the once-felt revolutionary potential of psychoanalysis, if my memory serves right. It is easily one of the most powerful video works of late that I've witnessed; you want to know more but you're unsure if it will help. It was also shown in SIC's premises, but I don't think it was part of their exhibition programme back then.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "times"; font-size: large;"><b>1035/1039</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Bruno's new show, "1035/1039", and its main piece, a 17-minute single-channel video titled "Space Under Hidden", traverses in similar terrain than "Galindez". Bruno's camera seems set to break any notions separating objects from subjects, or the humans portrayed from their surroundings; it moves deliberately on the surface of dusty chairs, house plants, and architectural details, while the voiceover and historic still images inform the viewer about events concerning the Revolutionary Workers Party, the measures someone took to protect an ideology, or the minuscule routines of everyday life surrounding the constructing of a secret hideaway and meeting place for the Party. The feeling I get is not of flattening relationality, but of agencies shifting between front and back so that, just like a film is a succession of images made to flow by speed and light, history becomes watery without the sharks disappearing.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Keep in mind I only looked at the the video once.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">The overall stripped-down look of the exhibition manifests some of the characteristic traits of biennial-level, rigorous video art installation: architectural investigations juxtaposing political meddling with the sites of such actions, minimally produced posters (shown alongside the video in adjacent room) echoing a resonance from hidden histories, sedate cinematography preferring sluggishly sweeping interior shots over fast-paced editing, and deadpan voiceovers caught in crisp, high-definition audio.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">One could simply look at these features as medium-specific, sensible standards that should not catch your attention, but for me, those choices reveal the desired-cum-couldn't-be-helped positioning of the work in the complex web of aesthetics, class, art scenes, identities, and careers. Some of those features did seem like part of the deal and thus as off-putting or attractive as those things are, depending on what you're looking for, but the extra wall separating the text works from the video, in a space within a space in the muffled Jätkäsaari neighbourhood, for a video that investigates the building of a secret underground space, is a glorious, even chilling move. I thought of Anna Daučíková's video shown at Documenta this year, cleverly installed in a small, sweaty room with constant traffic of visitors, mimicking, for me, the invasive reality of Soviet era domestic/sexual life depicted in the film.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">I am not writing about the content of Bruno's work that much, because I have only a rudimentary idea what it was about, and, without any sarcasm, I am not sure if that matters. I mean it does, but how, and how much? Afterwards, I duckduckgo'd the address and other info mentioned in the handout text, but after 30 minutes of online investigation, I still wasn't even sure which country these events took place in, and felt both confused and ignorant and like I've missed some important clue, which I most likely did because I didn't take notes while watching and because of my non-existent knowledge on the subject. The cold-but-sensual camerawork grabbed all my attention.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Other small details drove me away from sticking with the facts. One of the most striking moments, although possibly only taking place in my head, had to be this banal foley sound added to a black-and-white archive material bit, which I imagine was silent originally. But I wasn't sure. Sound is particularly apt for making you mistake a fleeting experience for narrative key.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">When I'm around a work that looks very much how critical contemporary art should be looking like, with support from numerous foundations in Finland, in a smooth new district in Helsinki, it makes me wonder if art works sometimes take the form of escapism from the conditions of their own production. (Sometimes they celebrate that, as is the case with IHME Festival, for example.) Meaning, one feels pressured to provide for content deemed worthwhile and serious, when surrounded with such an opportunity. But as said, the support comes and go, and I doubt Bruno, or most of us, would make work based on whether you are temporarily supported or not.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">It feels ridiculous, and a little shameful, to think about the funding or the professional-looking execution of the work, when I am pretty sure it was not some lavish production. What I'm after here is not at all if this childish remark holds true, but to say out loud what certain aesthetics trigger in me, and perhaps in other people too, from what I know from my conversations with friends. Furthermore, can anyone really look at "the content", and if they do, how do they do it and where does that put them? On the right side of the discourse?</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">That is another question I can't help pondering over when I attend critical curatorial talks in Helsinki, where the rare micro-histories, always new to its audiences like a shiny gift, are presented as the latest findings of the dedicated clergy. Or this is how I witness it amid my defensive paranoia. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Does the choice of topic make all the difference? How does, for example, Bruno's resolute investigations compare to a DJ digging crates for rare Italo 12" singles? It's not a problem related to Bruno's elegant works. No, this is the house ghost I greet at these premises when I'm presented with high-definition video and the logos of supporters. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So this was not a review of the exhibition, really, but an account on how the exhibition nudged me away from itself and how I was unable to find a way back in. I leave the space and feel like I didn't do enough work, something I often feel so I might as well point it out. But then this choreography of doubts, and a gaze that flickers between what is offered and what is not meant to be looked at feel very much like suitable partners to Bruno's works, where you find yourself contemplating untypical connections between histories, stories, information, objects, people, actions, and aesthetics.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;"><b>DISTENSION</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">At the same time in SIC there was a show by James Prevett titled "<a href="http://www.sicspace.net/past/james-prevett-distension/">Distension</a>", which the dictionary tells me means "disagreement", but I imagine it's alluding to "distention", which means cutting up, which maybe has something to do with a specific medical condition (such as bladder distension), but my English fails me here. Later, while visiting their studio, Prevett tells me both ways of writing the word are grammatically correct and mean the same thing, but, fittingly, I forgot to ask what it means precisely.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Visually the exhibition differs from Bruno's commanding rigidity bordering on austere. But then, Bruno's show strays away from Prevett's fractured storyline bordering on hallucinatory. Put it this way, I feel they both are more closer to each other than their presumed extremes.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">In the exhibition space, there is a sense of harmony and poise, and a warmth you might take either as coyness or care. Some of the materials, bronze and aluminum more precisely, create a distance between myself and the works. It reminds me of how Julia Bryan-Wilson tore down the claim(7) about the everyday nature of Carl Andre's materials, which were seen at the time as just stuff Andre found from the streets, whereas in reality there were only very few places to get those specific raw materials in the US at the time. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">I have no idea how to get my hands on bronze and aluminum, let alone figuring out a place to work with them. I expect it wouldn't be beyond my means, though. I just wonder how one ends up forging that relationship with bronze.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Prevett has placed two 3D printed objects on the floor acting as small plinths for cast toes. The toes are so shiny you can see yourself and other gallery visitors reflected on the surface, like a body part made to monitor us -or a trigger to make you hum Rolling Stones' "Under My Thumb". This has nothing to do with Prevett's show, but in general I love to look at people's toes when they're talking: they're like kittens saying everything the cultivated mouth is avoiding to speak about.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">But maybe there is a connection to the show: The wobbly, uneven, distorted, wounded characteristics of the body parts seem to contradict what the show at large seems to be saying. If you glance at the credible, trustworthy group of objects as placeholders that are there to affirm your idea of how contemporary art should look like, or if you take the proportionate placing of the works as an invitation to stroll around them pleasantly and unobstructed, you're prone to feel the show is beautiful, fun, a little indeterminate as these things always are expected to be nowadays(8), but enjoyable nevertheless, whereas the individual works and their details speak of a more darker, difficult experience. This tension between how the show looks like at first take, and the deeply troubled place you can see them emanating from if you give them time, is the blood-pumping heart of the show.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">On the exhibition notes, Prevett describes being in the hospital, which I take for granted has happened. There has been a procedure the artist had to undergo. The text renders visible the knees of a worker laying in the adjacent bed: "he spent fifteen years on his knees installing" TV-related things. The text ends on a description of the surgeon who has "very big hands", a phrase forever connected to current president of the United States and the body-shaming culture prevalent online. In line with such images, Prevett remembers the anesthetist's room transforming into "a hole".</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">These images lend the show an air of psychoanalytic unconscious and masculine innuendo. There clearly is admiration towards what you can do with your able body, and horror for what that body usually ends up doing in this world.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Some of the works feel unsure about being in such a world. Five characters made of plaster, with long legs and brown paper bags covering their heads, seem to be walking towards the exit of the gallery space. This piece is titled "Walking 1,2,3,4,5". While they're the biggest in the space, they seem to ask for the least attention.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">A small cast bronze object mounted on the wall is named "3rd Part (Brainstem)", and it looks like the Willendorf Venus figurine. I wonder if I should take it as a hint that perhaps the operation was much more serious than I first thought, or concentrate on the potential art-history reference (but then it also does look like a brainstem). On the ground next to Brainstem, there's another work titled "3d Part (Semicircular canals)", that could pass for handcuffs. Am I fetishizing everything, or is Prevett's work helping me see how I fetishize everything?</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Close to the end of the show (it makes sense to tour the space clock-wise), the point about masculinity and the hegemonic vista is hammered home. There are two digital prints mounted in steel frames, around 150 cm from ground, that have legs on both sides of the frame. One depicts a hairy white person's belly, and the other an upper-middle-class home with functionalist design furniture and decor. I went and stood between the silk screens, surrounded by two well-established centers of the capitalist world: the affluent home, and the naval-gazing of a white human.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">I feel the objects testify to the potential violence of presenting yourself in the everyday (the walking figures with paper bags covering their heads), being on the mercy of biological luck (pretty much all the other works), and turning your cursed body into lucky charms that reflect the world back at itself, because there is no escape. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">You can try to outsmart the world: You dip your toe in first, thinking you're clever to be so careful, only to see people next to you being thrown in at the mercy of the river.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">From the handout text: "The television news is on but I can't move to look. Some violent men somewhere." Are they not here?</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">How do their violence compare with that of Bruno's revolutionaries, and why would you compare? Moving on: what are these exhibitions you do when no one is watching, until, after you've finished with the show, you wish everyone would be? A gym teacher in a video(1) I have on while doing my workout in my living room is encouraging me to try harder. "What you do when no one sees you tells a lot about your character."</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Afterword: This text was very much inspired by this text(6).</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">0</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.happymagicsociety.com/index.php/project/not-the-problem-nor-the-solution-by--kimmo-modig/" style="background-color: #660000;">http://www.happymagicsociety.com/index.php/project/not-the-problem-nor-the-solution-by--kimmo-modig/</a></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">1</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eiIc1kkevY" style="background-color: #660000;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eiIc1kkevY</a></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">6</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.thewhitepube.co.uk/obj-subj-ectivity" style="background-color: #660000;">http://www.thewhitepube.co.uk/obj-subj-ectivity</a></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">7</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; color: #cccccc; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Julia Bryan-Wilson: Art Workers (2009)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #660000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cccccc;">8</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.contemporaryartstavanger.no/tirdad-zolghadr/" style="background-color: #660000;">http://www.contemporaryartstavanger.no/tirdad-zolghadr/</a></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-638638264287208681.post-85460288797030199522017-10-19T05:44:00.000-07:002017-11-29T23:39:46.618-08:00ALMA HEIKKILÄ, AMA GALLERY, 6 - 29 OCT 2017, HELSINKI<div lang="en-US" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">"When
philosophers get into art and start endorsing artists, we get the
official version of how a theory should look like as art." This
is what I remember a friend of mine saying while we were having
coffee and talking about certain theories currently circulating in
our art universes. The discussion begun from my friend having visited <a href="http://almaheikkila.net/">Alma Heikkilä</a>'s
exhibition at <a href="http://ama.fi/">AMA gallery</a>, here in Helsinki. They were unsure of
the relationship between the ideas informing the show and the
execution & works themselves. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">Heikkilä's
<a href="https://www.almaheikkila.net/truth-n">previous exhibition</a> at AMA in 2013 struck me as powerful. I can't remember any details from the show, only its
considerable impact that stayed with me. Looking at the documentation
now, I noticed how similar these two shows are to a fault. There's
the zooming in on white skin (this time between the eyes), and what
looks like the ground seen from space, but also the echoes from the
lineages of abstract painting, such as line drawings and color field,
and playful hanging of canvases that barely fit to the wall
height-wise. All of this made (and makes) you consider the nature of seeing and
measuring both within and outside the gallery.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">It might be worthwhile to mention that I am not really writing about the works
themselves for the simple fact that I don't know so much about
painting. So my attention steers towards the effects the exhibition
as a whole has on me, and the connections I am making from what I've been seeing, reading, and sensing lately, and in the show.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">The most
striking thing I saw, in the 2017 show, was witnessing an artist sticking with their
inquiry. It comforts you as a viewer when an artist is signalling a
commitment to what they're doing. This might seem self-evident or
something best dismissed as a shtick to some, but it made me realise how the
artists I know usually try out a different approach each time (unless a
particular thing sells well). I do that too. So in my world, staying
is much more rare than shifting, and it's something that pulls me in
immediately.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">I was reading a
<a href="https://www.hs.fi/kulttuuri/art-2000002690325.html" style="font-style: normal;">review</a> of the 2013 show, written by Veikko Halmetoja, a
Helsinki-based curator, art dealer, and critic. Halmetoja notes how
refreshing it is to see "these themes" (ie. ecological
issues in general) being turned into paintings, instead of the usual
strategy of depicting them via photographs. In general, either
strategy isn't preferable over the other for me. Both tend to result
in visualising a theme or a theory, while the making of a show
itself-where it is, who pays for it, who works there, how is it made
and experienced-might bear no relationship to the ideas it is said to
explore. For example, if I would make a show criticising the the role
of work as the new religion in our society, wouldn't it be weird if
I'd do 18-hour days and drove people helping me into burnout in order
to finish the show on time? Maybe it wouldn't to you, but I think it
<i>should</i> feel weird. I prefer the exhibition space not be cut away from
the reality that produces it, although I see no value in reproducing
images of that reality in that space, either. So what is the
solution?</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">I want to say
something along the lines of "more holistic approaches in which one considers everything that goes into the production and experience of
knowledge in exhibition spaces", but what that means is beyond me. I am
standing in AMA, confused by my own art-related preconceptions and anxieties which I then project onto the works of another artist,
half-heartedly wishing for them to solve these issues, while I full
well know the only way I'm able to be in a meaningful relation to
these works and ideas I'm temporarily sharing the space with is by
both abandoning my presumptions and cherishing them, thus accepting
the mess I am bringing with me to meet another mess. </span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">A few quotes
from the 2017 Heikkilä exhibition handout: "I (and many other
humans, and why not some of their pet dogs as well) MUST CONSUME
LESS", "This is Me (the biophilist / multi-species
ecological unit) working in a state of complete merging of the Self</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">with all Life
using materials like acrylic glue that is harmful to both Self and
Others.", "To reject the privileging of human existence
over nonhuman existence. Is this “fashionable”? If it is – it’s
kinda cool. Essential fashion on Most Important Matters. Please gimme
more ᕙ(`▿ ´)ᕗ ♥". "Trillions become one and this
one is acting towards it"</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">If this is the
case, then I think it's worthwhile to ask this: If a merging with
everything arounds us, and the un-privileging of the human existence, is paramount, why adhere to the modernist role of the individual
artist who creates discreet art works? Isn't that prone to shut out all
other possible agents and connections? Or am I doing the shutting
out? Am I taking the press release text too literally, instead of
seeing it as just another squishy piece of material contributing to
the tapestry of things, ideas, realness, and references? "Every
relation immediately generates a new object."1</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">Or is the press
release, as it so often seems to be, a way to make sure the
"aboutness" of a show comes through? Is it up to me to
start creating those new connections, to lose myself in the allusions
to glue, the trillions, and other ecological units? But if we take these
ideas seriously, wouldn't it lead us to question the very foundations
of the platforms we inhabit as artists? The rejecting of the
privileged position of the (Western, white) human existence compels us to ask what is human and who defines it, and how that
definition and category is being protected, and who ends up feeling
the violence from such categorising. Can artists (and curators, directors, producers, technicians, etc) change these things, if
they don't question the very nature of how knowledge is being produced
and safeguarded?</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">Surely these
are questions that most artists struggle with: representation vs
action, beliefs vs practice, ethics vs forms, defences vs curiosity.
One could say that Heikkilä's text is a strategy to show the limits
of what art works can do, and investigate those limits within a
chosen medium. Perhaps the answer to "what to do with art"
is in the small things and gestures that spark your imagination and
subtly nudges your preconceptions. If I tend to feel sad about what I perceive as the limits of an art work or an exhibition, what can I do? Demand the artist works
more to my liking? Or accept what's there in this room, and start
over?</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">(To quote
Ta-Nehisi Coates, one makes art not to change the world "but in
the mean and selfish desire to not be enrolled in its lie"2. But
it is also true that art is the one thing that has affected my
structures of thinking the most. It has never been about learning new
things or receiving information per se: art changes the way I
experience the world, if it does anything at all. This is why formal
qualities, questions of presenting, curatorial concepts, and
aesthetics have far more political potential than the raw information
one might inject into an art work, or an exhibition, although it is
hard to say where on ends and the other begins.)</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">Speaking of
small things, Maureen O'Malley's book "Philosophy of
Macrobiology" was hidden under a pile of seemingly art-making
-related objects, such as a plastic box where one mixes colors. I was
crouching like a cat trying to see what the book is. It felt oddly
rewarding to figure it out but this is not a value judgement.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">In their
writings (of which I have, as with most things, only a cursory
understanding -I looked up a review of the book while writing this, and
then hastily read an article from John Dupre's Philosophy of Biology),
O'Malley has made a a compelling case for considering fundamental
philosophical questions through the lens of microbes, "the
smallest things". The book could easily be implemented, by
artists, as a contribution to the current increase in all things
system theory, diagrams, and classifications (in art discourses).
O'Malley encourages the reader to re-think the foundations of the
categories that, for example, separate living and non-living things
in philosophical thought. The unfortunate thing is, as much as artists are
being encouraged by a host of thinkers, and no matter how many art
works are asking the viewer to question certain given notions of
meaning, subject-object -relation, and other binaries, the museum
machine, the biennial complex, or the educational paradigm will
eventually render everything violently into neat categories to uphold
the tenets of their reality.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">Whereas
O'Malley's writings makes the case, as far as I understood, for
taking microbes seriously, Heikkilä's exhibition proposes something
akin to refurbishing. That is only if you're willing to look at the works
as paintings in a gallery that tries to sell art, and if you compare
them to what is being shown in other spaces where similar gambits are
at play.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">Most of
Heikkilä's paintings that were sold had sprinkles of miniature stuff
on the surface that gave them more three-dimensionality. These bits connected the works, by the choice of materials
the sprinkly stuff was made of, to the themes addressed in the
handout text. It looked as if someone had updated the abstract
landscape painting genre that, I imagine, comprises 70% of all the
art works sold in Finland. This is a harsh thing to say, but it's not
about the effect of the work: it's about the reference points I have
at my disposal, collected from time spent touring Finnish galleries.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">After I am done
sharpening my nails with such routine dismissal I've learned to
exercise around art, a practice I am slowly unlearning as I
begin my long goodbye to orderly art while considering the
potential value of those nails and that order, I sit down, get back
up, walk around the gallery a few times, re-read the text, pace arund a
little, and eavesdrop a visitor talking with a staff member (they
were quibbling about Finnish art scene). I hang out with the works
again, feeling unsure if being direct is more needed today than being
there.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">I try to be
there. The more time passes, the more I feel like being somewhere.
This isn't landscape painting: this is a landscape, one that Heikkilä
has created from a petro-lifestyle that runs counter to the ideals
one holds dear, a paradox so fundamental that many of us have given
up on resolving it.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">As so often,
I'm thinking of how crucial curating is to the experience of art. My
mind starts to place Heikkilä's works in wholly different contexts,
away from AMA gallery. To see these works at AMA is to look at a
machine turned off, stored away from the consuming effect of daily
usage. I imagine the inevitable "Anthropocene" group
exhibition, probably already in the works in some Finnish museum, that
will feature all the 30-something artists currently engaged with
issues of intra-agency, non-human subjectivity, petro-narratives, and
epistemic disturbances, or, if you instead consider how the rooms in
such a show will be put together, pastel-colored mushy objects,
fungi, theory-heavy books, diagonal neon sticks, 3D landscapes, the
lot. Such categorising and forcing into museum discipline discredits the artists greatly. I secretly hope the artists will turn down those future offers if they can afford to do so.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">Such a show
would, once more, make clear how thematic curating is a way of ostracising
ideas for the entertainment of the enlightened members </span></span></span><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">of </span><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">society, by conserving the w</span><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">orks</span><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> stationary, instead of implementing and vitalising them. It will remind you how "all
human orders [...] have mapped their "descriptive statements"
or governing master codes on the heavens [...] in doing so, they had
thereby mapped their specific criterion of being human, of what it
was "to be a good man and woman of one's kind" [...] their
respective truths had necessarily come to function as an "objective
set of facts" for the people of that society"3.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">If I/you
wouldn't force art works to mean what I/you think they should mean
out of being scared that people will think I/you are not in the know,
would I/you have extra room in my/your heart for the total mess?</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">1 = Graham
Harman: The Quadruple Object</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">2 = Ta-Nehisi
Coates: We Were Eight Years In Power</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-size: medium;">3 = Sylvia
Wynter: Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth&Freedom -
Towards the Human, After Man, Its Overrepresentation-An Argument</span></span></span></div>
<style type="text/css">
<!--
@page { margin: 0.79in }
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in }
-->
</style>
<br />
<div lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0