Taidekoulu Maa ( 18:00-20:30 )
The students were preparing for the audio-visual exhibition MAA for AAVE connected to AAVE festival in Helsinki.
I interviewed each student on these two days, discussing their work and concepts. What was the initial idea to start working and who were the artists they drew inspiration from.
Here is the Programme I came up with based on these interviews:
MAA for AAVE Programme, 9th of April, 2014
Anu Pulkkinen Video pieces, 2014: The Veil, Roses Filming done by Anu Pulkkinen
Camera assistant: Jasse Tuukki
Video pieces: Puhu, Newborn, Nymphony
Filming and editing by Tommi Rautio.
Directed by both Tommi and Anu.
The first video is based on the song by Anu called ‘The Veil`. The scenes were taken at night in Helsinki, the moon, lights on the street all filmed by Anu herself. The scenes move with the lyrics of the song’s refrain:
“There’s a place where I can see your face from behind my veil”.
Close up of Anu’s face juxtaposed with the lights of the chandelier, draped in red silk, eroticism and sensuality. The video has a slight 80’s feel of Aki Kaurismäki’s movies and music videos from the time, real life and dream combined. The visual references to veil are real and symbolic as one can see everything thorough it, the longing and the dream.
The music draws inspiration from Slow Bollywood songs, Lana Del Ray, Rumba and Latin sounds, Arabian music, and other ethnic influences.
The second video ‘Roses’ is a concert duet rehearsal of Hoffman’s Tales, Barcarolle, sang by Kjell Lemström as part of the duet with Anu. In the opening scene we see a bowl of roses, roses saved over the last 10 years from Anu’s concert performances. Although roses are associated with romance, the accidental sneeze at the end is evocative of dust and memories, ephemeral as the beautiful music itself.
The video piece ‘Puhu’ (speak) was filmed and edited by Tommi Rautio and composed by Anu and Jukka- Pekka Flandrer. It is about loneliness and the longing for a friend or a lover, also thinking if he is the right one. Scenes in the video are filmed in different places, and have been merged very well together with the music. The piece ‘Newborn’, filmed by Tommi Rautio, is also a music video of Anu’s song of the same name. In the video we see a woman on the beach, where dream and reality are mixed and a nymph is by her side. She awakes from the dream and follows the nymph into the forest. She feels like a ‘newborn’ but at the same time she is not sure of the nymph’s intentions and falls down on a rock in the forest.
In the video piece ‘Nymphony’ we see a continuation of the story from the previous song, sung and composed by Anu. The woman in the video awakes once more and decides to accept the nymph’s invitation to dance and be free.
Pauliina Holopainen
Video piece, 2014: Elephant
Lighting and filming done by Ramina Habibollah.
Poem by Pauliina Holopainen
The video piece is inspired by the poem of the same name. The lyrics express the angst of the dramatic difficult moment in time, “the floors turn on me” and the “carpet yells”. The colour red, the white cloth that covers Puliina’s face are revealing what is left unspoken or hushed up. Pauliina’s visual inspiration comes from films, TV and art. Evocative perhaps of early Fassbinder movies.
Ramina Habibollah
Video pieces, 2014: Aenar, Amale, Tableau and Juje
The first piece is a play with light. Ramina’s eyes are covered in darkness and the lips are lit with the light from the phone and the video camera. It is opposite of the veil that usually covers the face but reveals the eyes. The second video piece ‘Aenar’ is composed from the footage that was shot in Tehran. Workers do not have any safe equipment, there is no scaffolding and the window just falls off the building. Ramina filmed the footage through the kitchen window of her family house The third piece ‘Tableau’ is a play with lights filmed partly in Vienna and partly on Kish Island in the Persian Gulf.
The fourth piece ‘Juje’ is filmed in a bazaar in Iran. Here, small chicks and ducklings are being sold as pets, though they may not live long as they are separated from their mothers.
Olli Nuutila
Photo collage (multiple images mounted on cardboard)
Photos are attached with black tape which covers the surface. Also the white narrow tape shows a pattern that represents the paths. Photographs were taken over time, in the last four years, with a film camera. Some of the images have been developed in the dark room.
The images are grouped by theme:
Fence theme (imprisoned, captured, and stuck). These restrictions could be also psychological.
Human waste theme has references to lust, holes and bottles, drain pipes and porn magazines.
There is also the longing section with images of the beach and looking into the distance on the horizon.
The theme of landscapes, infrastructure and how humans have constructed the world around them.
The Cat Lady with black fur coat and her 10 cats.
Human footprints theme: what is left behind in nature … plastic bottles?
Consumption theme: rotten apples, frog’s eggs, shopping and gherkins.
People on the margins theme: revenge, the dark side, a cross and the mafia.
Jari Nordgren
Sculpture installation
Jari’s work is inspired by Munch’s painting, “The Scream”. It is a 3D interpretation of the painting. In-between two mirrors on the wall there is the head made from chicken wire and foam. The face is painted in acrylic with a mix of colours: red, purple and green. Shadows, mirrors and lighting evoke the dark atmosphere of the painting.
Minna Nurmi Video piece, 2014: Skin The video piece is filmed using a head sculpture and a bust. It brings the feeling of gentleness and the longing for human contact.
Elina Saalfeld
Video animation: The Stolen Window
Elina was inspired by social media and how it affects our perception of everyday life. We see images on social media sites that are quite often ‘glamorized’ moments in time. Elina wanted to construct a story and show her everyday life as it is. That is the significance of the title, ‘The Stolen Window’. The opening scene is the view from the window. The video is taken in a small village in France, but the setting could be anywhere. Elina is inspired by the photographer, Sofie Calle, particularly her methods in building a story and the way an unexpected situation can be an inspiration.
Silja Seppälä
Video piece: Dream Baby Dream
The work deals with our perceptions of reality, how they change and ‘break up' sometimes. We inhabit different worlds in our heads and this is illustrated with juxtaposition of surreal images with masks and sculptures. Videos and still images were taken in different situations and the story was composed later. The scenes are filmed in Helsinki, Munkkisaari and Kallio.
Silja is inspired by Jim Jarmusch, his minimalistic style and also the way humour is shown even in difficult moments.
Meeri Siukonen
Video Pieces: Patterns of Culture, Bobeobi, Can’t Handle, Ain’t That a Paint?
The first video, ‘Patterns of Culture’, questions the cultural stereotypes and kitsch. We quite often perceive culture with the surface view of various rituals and artefacts. Culture also involves a set of behaviours too. Meeri is interested in globalisation and how it affects cultures and the way they confront each other. She creates a new space where a Finnish rug is part of the toreadors’ bull fight. In the end we see death represented by a Mexican skeleton, symbolic also of the cycle of life and the next generation that comes.
The second video, ‘Bobeobi’, is inspired by Velimir Hlebnikov’s poem of the same name. The words of the poem do not convey the meaning directly but describe the movements of the mouth when speaking. In the video we see only the lips moving while expecting to see the whole face. We compose the impression of the wholeness but the face remains unknown.
The third piece ‘Can’t Handle’ is composed of different movements that make reference to a whole. Meeri’s interests range from performance art to Russian culture at the beginning of the 20th century, particularly filmmakers such as Eisenstein and Kuleshov. The last video piece ‘Ain’t That a Paint’ shows different locations of a painting done by Meeri herself. The video starts with the painting placed on a floatation ring at a beach. This questions the nature of painting as an object that is usually placed in a gallery or a home.
Jaana Eskola
Video piece: The Elevator
The view is from a glass panorama elevator, filmed in Paimio Sanatorium, built in 1932 near Turku. The building served as a tuberculosis hospital until 1960’s. Inspired by modernist architecture and John Cage.
Elvira Eilitta
Video piece: Moondyed
This video piece is a collection of short video clips and the dark atmospheric sound accompanying the shots.
Written by: Aleksandra Paravina
The show on the 9th of April  |
| Olli Nuutila Photo collage (multiple images mounted on cardboard) |
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