Näkemisen hetki / Yhden suhde sataantuhanteen 2018-2019
Visual artist Sanna Pajunen and I had a joint exhibition in the Cable Factory in Helsinki. The high exhibition space inspired us both to make something that hangs in the air. I produced two installations, one being a school of medusas splitting the air space and the other named ‘The Gang’ which was three very large drawings of ravens. I have shown the work ‘The Gang’ three times and each time I have added something to complete it.
The Gang
I encountered ravens during a residency in Iceland. In the Viking folklore one of their domesticated ravens discovered an uninhabited island. I described the social and intelligent bird so that one can meet them as individuals face to face without mystification. I lifted them to standing boards like paper models in advertsements. Drawing the totally black bird with crayons was interesting.
I exhibited the work complete with a fourth bird in P-gallery in Pori in the spring of 2019. I added a sound to the work for Art Fair Suomi exhibition organised by Muu and Association of Finnish Photographers. The sound was made by sound engineer Ari Keltamäki on the basis of recordings at the Helsinki zoo and sounds made by me.
The Bloom
The work is a school of medusas, animals that have floated in the seas for hundreds of millions of years. Medusas are the winners in the current climate change. I have met them in the Berlin zoo and also by accident in the sea in Denmark. They are strangely symmetrical and travel in the seas by only floating along with currents. They reproduce on human made piers and multiply in abundance.