To briefly break the silence, my next solo show opens on Friday the 29th March at GalleriaKONE, Hämeenlinna. It’s the premiere of my new work called BLACKTOP/DISSECTION, a two-part two-channel video installation.
Have a look at GalleriaKONE for more info. Those on Facebook may wish to check the event page there.
More about this work, my recent absence from these digital dimensions and other things will follow… soon(er or later).
There’s the notion that the artist is always as work, even if it doesn’t always seem like it. At least some parts of their brain are at work. I have to agree, and often it’s not the question of choice but simply the way the mind works. A fresh example follows.
Yesterday I borrowed an old VCR (my own VCRs had been dead long ago) to check out some tapes I made 20+ years ago (more about them later). To test the player I grabbed the first VHS tape I found from my storage. It turned out to be The Hunger (1983), directed by Tony Scott and starring Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon. Unfortunately but perhaps not unexpectably, the old VCR turned out so hungry it ate the video tape right up! I don’t blame the player, it is totally understandable by circumstances – shelved away like the decaying former partners in the vampire queen’s attic in the film would make anyone crave for anything to chew on.
Anyways, I turned to more imminent things on my ToDo-list, making my way towards a thing that had a deadline set for tomorrow (ie. today). The thing was an assignment for a film course by renowned artist-researcher-lecturer Kari Yli-Annala, on topics related to hauntology, Russian cosmism, David Lynch and whatnot. So I had that in the back of my mind while doing the other stuff on my list… but the day grew short and I had to push the assignment over to the last day and get some sleep.
(Zzz…)
One of my dogs woke me up at 3 am to let him run his errands outside. After, I went back to bed but couldn’t get sleep. Something was bubbling under in the unconscious and kept me awake. And it suddenly dawned on me I had practically done the course assignment unknowingly! Hauntology, the VHS and the VCR, The Hunger… it’s all there and just needs some camera work and writing as a red thread to connect the dots.
(Coffee & work ensues…)
Now it’s 7 am and I’m writing this down for personal amusement, having mostly finished the assignment as well as a small media art piece (or two) related to that. More about those later; the Instagram photos here are merely for fun and documentation. This note is to illustrate how the ‘office hours’ are sometimes so off.. and… that the conscious mind is not always up to date on what’s going on.
I still agree with David Lynch on what he says on the video above, about watching movies on an iPhone. That was a decade ago, but the point remains. It’s impossible to achieve the kind of immersion that you get on a large screen in a dark movie theater, no matter how pristine your phone’s or tablet’s retina screen is.
For similar reasons, I’ve been hesitant to share online some of my videos and cinematic works, since many of them are installations designed for specific site and setting. Oneline, one cannot achieve the same experience as on large projections, special screens and darkened spaces.
Now I’ve partly changed my mind. I still think one should experience the works in the environment and setting meant for them, but if that’s not possible, online streaming is better than nothing at all.
That said, my video works from 2011-2017 (most of them, at least) can now be viewed on Vimeo. They’re also found on my website where there’s more info, stills, photos and related stuff.
So, feel free to watch wherever, whenever and however you prefer. In general: the larger the screen, the louder the sound, the darker the room, the fewer the people and other distractions between you and the work, the better.
Out 2 is a collective film installation and related explorative events, inspired by Jacques Rivette’s enigmatic 13-hour film Out 1: Noli Me Tangere (1971). Out 2 investigates “accessibility” to contemporaneity via historical moments. It intertwines documentary and fabricated fragments, also produced in the event, into a sculptural moving image composition.
Friday, August 18, 2017 – 11:00
to Sunday, August 27, 2017 – 21:00
Sala del Camino, Venice – Research Pavilion
Out 2 info @ Uniarts Helsinki
Out 2 Facebook event
Out 2 group:
Harri Laakso and Maiju Loukola (artist-researchers responsible for the project), Laura Jarvey, Riikka Theresa Innanen, Outi Yli-Viikari, Saara Tamminen, Jernej Cucek Gerbec, Matti Tanskanen, Niko Nurmi, Ragnar Águstsson, Joel Autio, Eero Tiainen, Valeria Nekhaeva, Niko Skorpio, Ali Mehta, Aneta Atsova, Katja Lautamatti, Henna Herranen, Katri Miettinen, Tatiana Melnikova, Jakub Bobrowski, Ilona Lehtonen, Victor Pereira Pardinho, Jelena Rosic, Adriana Delgado / MA and DA students from ViCCA MA programme in Visual Culture and contemporary art, ELO Dept. of Film, tv and Scenography & Medialab at Aalto ARTS Helsinki.
Installation photos by Maiju Loukola
Frame grabs by Niko Skorpio
Self-portrait as “Ghost” for OUT 2
(Niko Skorpio, October 2016)
Time to begin revealing things I’ve been preparing some time. PARAFERAL is my studio and a new creative outlet for visual, sonic and other productions. A great deal of the work remains under the surface, but some things will soon begin to pop up for public consumption.
There’s also a page on FB. Like it if you do. The rest of social media will be permeated in time…
The other day I set up some photographic prints and a video for an exhibition in Humppila. The photos present a brief early selection from something I’m currently working on, now known as Centennial Sleep (Satavuotinen uni).
The moving image piece is called From Beyond the Wall of Sleep (Unen seinämän takaa), a video installation for 4:3 CRT TV.
I’ll leave further details offline for now. Those within reach, go and check them out.
5.-24.7.2016
Taidemakasiini ITU
Perkiöntie 13, Humppila