Verbal Art

Happy New Year!

Sun, 31 Dec 2023 07:00:26 GMT

A short New Years greeting from me in Copenhagen, with a small public-service announcement of how the podcast is continuing after this holiday. Thank you for listening, talk to you next year! For questions, comments, or other feedback, write me on verbal.art@protonmail.com

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45: Oskar Partanen / Kinetic Sculpture

Sat, 30 Dec 2023 01:23:25 GMT

I meet Oskar Partanen in Annantalo in Helsinki, to see his solo exhibition Self Titled and talk about his cute but eerie sculptures that move and make sounds. His creatures live side-by-side in one room, but somehow seem to all exist within each their own universe. We talk about repurposed items, pragmatic choices in materials, and Oskar explains how he has hacked electronic audio devices and built motorised constructions to give his figures life. We get into childhood dreams, discuss how children might be better art critics than adults, and reflect on how to make work that speaks adult language in a child-friendly way. Also, on this episode you hear me speak a bit more Finnish, we have an actionpacked live-moment with an artwork, and we have a surprise cameo of Marloes van Son's interactive sound work!

Oskar's Instagram

Annantalo's website

Oskar's exhibition on Annantalo's website

Marloes' website

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Merry X Mess!

Sun, 24 Dec 2023 04:00:03 GMT

Today on the podcast, I have little treat! As a Christmas present, I made a live recording of an exclusive, improvised Christmas collage concert! I am layering five Finnish Christmas cassette tapes, all played on old, analogue tape players, to sculpt a new old holiday sound for you to enjoy while you are waiting for Christmas Eve. There is a lot of old gold in the mix, but everything is in Finnish and played simultaneously. A very merry, morphed X Mess Mashup, to all of you from every me <3

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44: Kamila Śladowska / Painting Plants & Private Parts

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 04:11:58 GMT

I return to Asbestos Art Space in Helsinki, to see Kamila Śladowska's solo exhibition Growing Interconnectedness, which has turned the gallery into a surreal painting installation of water, plants, and morphed shapes of naked, human bodies. Kamila tells about foraging herbs and finding inspiration in nature's ecosystems, and guides us through her assemblage of deconstructed paintings and sculptural elements. She explains how her art is an existential and political tool to deal with topics such as ecology, sexuality and gender, and how growing up in a country dominated by oppressive Catholicism has created a need for rebellious commentary within herself. Kamila also tells a bit about how she relates to the concept of hydrofeminism and how water is an essential element in her work, and we get to hear a small concert on her collaborative hydrophone Herb Brew Instrument (this is best heard with headphones or decent speakers).

Kamila's website

Kamila's Facebook page

Kamila's Instagram

Asbestos' website

Asbestos' Facebook page

Asbestos' Instagram

And the Herb Brew Instrument collaborators:

Robert Prakapovich's Instagram

Mark Reid Bulatovič's Instagram

Kristīne Tukre's Instagram

Wanda Kamińska's Instagram

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43: Paola Fernanda Guzmán Figueroa / Familia Forever

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 21:46:36 GMT

I meet Paola Fernanda Guzmán Figueroa in Oodi library in Helsinki, to talk about her video work Nanita, para siempre. Paola explains how her Colombian roots grew stronger while living in Finland, and how she keeps a close connection to her family by making them a focal point in her art. We discuss different techniques for working with film- and video, and Paola talks about the process, and feeling, of making one thousand drawings of her grandmother for the animation film projected in the library. We also talk about showing art in public spaces not created for exhibitions, and how an audience reacts differently when they are surprised by art rather than looking for it.

Paola's website

Paola's Instagram

Kino Club's Instagram

Kino Club's Facebook page

Oodi's website

ALA Architects' website

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42: James Prevett / Sculpting Socially

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 22:41:26 GMT

In this crossover episode with OOO Radio (Out of Office), James Prevett guides me through his exhibition Together With in Forum Box gallery in Helsinki. James explains how ongoing collaborations with other artists, the public, and his daughter, helps him reconsider and reinvent himself as sculptor, teacher and curator, as we look at years of different initiatives of socially engaged sculpture displayed side-by-side. We talk about material translation, travelling artworks, methods of public participation, and how every project entails its own set of practical, ideological and aesthetic premises.

This episode was broadcast live on OOO Radio at the time of recording, as a crossover with the community-radio component of the exhibition. Contact OOO Radio on hello@oooradio.live if you are interested in getting involved.

James' website

James' Instagram

OOO Radio (Out of Office)

Forum Box's website

Parties for Public Sculptures

Malmö Monument

Parts (for Muuri) scores

Listen to Conversation Pieces (Things for Homes / Homes for Things)

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41: Niko Nordström / Time

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 02:33:28 GMT

I finally sit down with Niko Nordström, to talk about his solo performance This Is Why I'm Late, in The Theatre Academy in Helsinki. We talk through his semi-fictionalised self-portrait of monologues about clocks, dreams and the struggles between thought and time, all the while dipping into the history of structured time; the societal needs for, and science behind, these structures. Niko explains how the framework of his performance is inspired by experiences in his immediate life, and how he embodies the act of storytelling from various positions, via different characters and as writer/actor. We talk about time as collaborator, time as antagonist, time as a premise for planned out events, and time as an uncontrollable element of surprise. We discuss shared feelings of ambiguity towards the concept of lateness, and reflect on how internal perception of time does not always align with external expectations.

"We proclaim the environment we act in to be subjective to the core, and believe that it unravels itself differently to each individual...we strive to include the aspect of Time in the context of accessibility, which so far has primarily concerned itself with the dimensions of physical space...In a society that increasingly, constantly and actively demands, steals and feeds off our concentration, energy and Time through demands of activity...The more we sleep, the less we consume scarce resources...we deem the current neoliberal capitalist system that bases itself on endless economic (and other) growth to be both unsustainable, illusionary and naïve in its core."

- excerpts from The Late Party's Explanatory Party Program

This episode contains sound bites from the performance This Is Why I'm Late, recorded as video by Willjam Tigerstedt, ripped and edited by me.

Niko's Instagram

The Theatre Academy Helsinki's website

The Theatre Academy Helsinki's Facebook page

Artist at Work by Bojana Kunst

Momo by Michael Ende

I could not find the exact article I mention, but I found a few other interesting reads:

Emotions & Time

Language & Time

Neuroscience & Time

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40: Tangmo / Oppression & (Self)censorship

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 20:47:38 GMT

I join Tangmo's participatory performance memory field in The Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, and meet her there later to unpack it. Together we talk through the performance from beginning to end, and Tangmo expands on how she developed the project and incorporated multiple collaborations with other Thai artists. She tells about the horrific background of the piece: The Thammasat Massacre in 1976, a student uprising event in Thailand which was violently shut down and almost completely erased from common history, and explains some of the differences to working as a student and artist in Thailand and Finland. We discuss student activism, censorship, and how to be brave in your position as artist and reclaim your voice in your work. We also talk about interactive poetry, audience engagement, and psychological aspects of the architecture of the new academy building.

memory field working group: concept and performance by Ladapha “Tangmo” Sophonkunkit, costume design by Pin Nicha, sound design by fluffypak, graphic design by Suwapat Rodprasert, Chiw Uparsin, Sirada Darikarnonta, patches by Jayda Sakulpoonsook, Naraphat Sakarthornsap, Beam Wong, Maya Jett, Praejeen Kunawong (Jeen Ku), bo nawacharee, Banana blah blah, Julibakerandsummer and Thanakorn Dean Siriraks.

This episode contains audio documentation from the performance recorded by me.

Tangmo's website

Tangmo's Instagram

memory field on Uniarts' website

The Thammasat Massacre

LAPS' website

LAPS' Facebook page

The Academy of Fine Arts' new building

And many of the collaborators:

fluffypak's Instagram

Jayda Sakulpoonsook's Instagram

Naraphat Sakarthornsap's website

Beam Wong's Instagram

Maya Jett's Instagram

Praejeen Kunawong (Jeen Ku)'s Instagram

bo nawacharee's website

Banana blah blah's Instagram

Julibakerandsummer's Instagram

Thanakorn Dean Siriraks' Instagram

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39: Myriam Gras & Cyane Findji / Helsinki Biennial

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 18:51:55 GMT

I take a walk on Vallisaari island with Myriam Gras and Cyane Findji, to look at a selection of works from Helsinki Biennial 2023. They have organised a series of guided tours for the exhibition, with focus on more site-specific works. Their project, Navigating Turbulence ~ towards the making of place, also contains a publication and a sound piece. We talk about the island's many functions; military defence, natural habitat for plants and animals, and now international art gallery. We discuss the concept of art biennials and how they affect the places that host them, and we reflect on how a place like the island is used and regulated by many groups with different agendas. We also talk about the sea freezing to ice, how this phenomenon is studied in a lab in Aalto University, and we learn about the existence of science-poetry.

This episode contains excerpts from the sound piece Navigating Turbulence ~ towards the making of place, made by Cyane and Myriam for the boat ride as part of their tours. The project is developed as part of The Art Mediation Forum by ViCCA@Aalto ARTS, one of five curatorial collaborators invited by curator Joasia Krysa and HAM for the Helsinki Biennial 2023.

Helsinki Biennial's website

Vallisaari's website

Vallisaari on Finnish National Parks' website

Aalto's Ice & Wave Tank

Tim Hammer on LinkedIn

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38: Sara Rantanen / Performance Installation

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 22:00:00 GMT

I visit the Bachelor's Degree Show in The Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, to talk to Sara Rantanen about her sculptural installation that she activates with performances. She tells about self-discoveries in her recent transition from painting to performance art, using her body as a research tool, and we discuss how a change in medium can affect the way you approach not only your work but also yourself. Sara explains how it feels to put herself on display in the gallery, and we talk about vulnerability and trust in the relationship between performer and spectator. We discuss practical and emotional strategies in embodied practice, and reflect on the meditative aspects of endurance. W also talk about our new school building, and how we each have used artistic methods to respond to the architecture and deal with our frustration about it.

Sara's website

Sara's Instagram

BFA exhibition on Kuva/Tila's website

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37: Harriina Räinä / Oyster Portrait

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 02:08:57 GMT

Verbal Art is back after a short hiatus - I could not keep up with my schedule...

I have my first ever return guest on the podcast, Harriina Räinä, this time I visit her solo exhibition Volatile Shells in Hippolyte Studio in Helsinki (check Verbal Art episode 5 for my first interview with Harriina, in Helsinki Art Museum). She explains how she is continuing her research on relationships between humans and animals, currently in an ongoing three-part exhibition series with oysters as subject matter, and we get to learn a lot about oysters! We discuss how people relate differently to different types of animal remains, the practicality of protecting your soft tissue behind a hard shell, and how reflections on non-human agency is a very human approach to empathy.

Harriina's website

Harriina's Instagram

Hippolyte Gallery's website

Cité internationale des Arts residency

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Sorry! Crazy week

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 21:44:32 GMT

Sorry, I had to skip this week because my master's thesis deadline took all I had to give! And I had the flu. So episode 37 will come next Wednesday instead.

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36: Ana Gutieszca / Drawing Noise

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 04:03:30 GMT

I visit Ana Gutieszca in her studio in Helsinki, where she gives us a listen through her electronic music gear, and talks about her love of noise and drum machines. We also take a look at her animal drawings, and she explains how she turns her drawings into sound by using the electric conductivity of graphite and her own custom-built devices. We discuss the aspects of time and flow in music making and performance settings and share anecdotes of stage moments and musical realisations, and Ana tells about her personal history with music, from playing instruments as a child to her discovery of electronic music. We also talk about facilitating culture and running underground venues, and I realise that Ana was a founding member of Third Space (a former mini-venue in Helsinki).

The intro sound of this episode is an excerpt from Ana's track The Book of Repression and the outro sound is her track Instincts.

There are some low bass frequencies in this episode that you will only hear in headphones or with real speakers.

Humanimal performance videos

Äänitaiteen Seura's website

Äänitaiteen Seura's Instagram

Äänitaiteen Seura's Facebook page

Third Space's website

Third Space's Facebook page

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35: David Lundström Nabel / Large-Scale Sculpture

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 13:39:58 GMT

David Lundström Nabel shows me his very large sculpture in the group exhibition Yhtäkiä - Suhduhnle in Kuva/Tila gallery in Helsinki. David explains how he transported a massive cable drum through the city and into the gallery, and talks us through his assembly of different materials and found objects. We discuss what makes a work masculine, if size matters in the exhibition space, and how the different works affect each other in a group show. We also talk about casting your own body parts, finally finding a purpose for something you have been holding onto, and how positioning of a small element can make a huge difference in the symbolic reading of the whole.

In the background, you can hear the soundscape of two works in the exhibition by Samuel Thompson-Plant and artist duo Bebetton.

David's Instagram

Yhtäkiä - Suhduhnle on Kuva/Tila's website

Yhtäkiä - Suhduhnle on Facebook

Samuel's Website

Samuel's Instagram

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34: Chih-Tung Lin / Curator

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 03:00:07 GMT

I visit the group exhibition Shall we sleep on this? in Yö Galleria, curated by Chih-Tung Lin. They talk us through the works of the three artists Amanda Lono, Minjee Hwang Kim and Noora Lehtovouri, and tell us all about their curatorial process and decisions of the show. We discuss exhibitions as enduring entities, the non-linear dynamics of group shows, expectations vs. outcome, and how to curate chaos. We reflect on the role of the curator and question why some people hyphenate their title as artist-curator. We talk about what methods to employ when embodying that position, and Chih-Tung explains how they have been writing a curator-diary through this project and used the text in the exhibition to create transparency. We also get into the emotional challenges of the job, and discuss social skills, self-awareness, and the noble art of appropriate communication.

Chih-Tung's website

Chih-Tung's Instagram

Chih-Tung's Facebook profile

Shall we sleep on this? on Facebook

Yö's website

Yö's Facebook page

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33: Laura Dahlberg / Robotic Alien Babies

Wed, 06 Sep 2023 03:00:10 GMT

I visit Helsinki Art Museum (HAM) again, this time to see Laura Dahlberg's new sci-fi inspired solo exhibition Abiotic Variables feat. Alien Babies. Laura explains how she has used silicone to cast soft robots, and how she learned to use air as a mechanic tool. We also get to know about the crazy, lively material called liquid crystal polymer, and Laura tells the story of how she got to develop her artwork in a science lab together with PhD researchers who study the material for other applications. We discuss the future of robots and empathy, the agency of inanimate materials, and Laura tells about the emotional aspects of birthing alien art babies and giving them up for adoption. We also talk about aesthetic tropes of science fiction, and how an exhibition space can become an other-worldly experience with the use of simple ambient tools.

Laura's website

Laura's Instagram

Abiotic Variables feat. Alien Babies in Helsingin Sanomat

HAM's website

Helsinki Hacklab's website

Tampere University Chemistry Lab's Instagram

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32: Clément Beraud / Museum Technician

Wed, 30 Aug 2023 03:39:28 GMT

I meet Clément Beraud in Helsinki Art Museum (HAM) where he works as exhibition technician. He talks us through the installation of selected works from Helsinki Biennial, explains the practical considerations and tells about what can go wrong in the long, delicate process of transport and re-assembly. We get an insight into the greater ecology of a large gallery and all the people involved in the production of an exhibition, and how all the different roles approach common objectives with different agendas and priorities. We talk about the absurdity of a regular object becoming a sacred artefact when put on display, and how new value and rules are applied to it in an instant when it enters the gallery space. Clément explains about the practical aspects of his job, working as a technician in many different museums and galleries around Helsinki, and how potential safety hazards and safety practices are handled. We also discuss issues of the financial structures of the art world, and some of the challenges leading to artists making careers of their side-gigs such as technician positions.

There was some electrical interference making noise on the recording, which I have cleaned and removed as much as I could without making our voices too strange. It is not constant throughout the episode! When we walk & talk through the exhibition the soundscape is fine and you can hear the sound of the artworks.

Clément's website

Clément's Instagram

Technicians' group exhibition in Gallery Pallas

HAM's website

Helsinki Biennial's website

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31: Xenia Ramm / Me, Myself & Our Thesis (Pt.2)

Wed, 23 Aug 2023 20:24:04 GMT

In this second, final part of my self-reflective solo episode, I continue to explain about my current master's thesis project: a site-specific sound art piece on cassette tape, titled The Silence of Sea Tower. I reminisce on all the challenges and wonders I have come across during this year-long engagement, talk about how this whole thing in many ways feels like one big puzzle I am trying to piece together, and I reflect on how it is like an investigation with clues and surprises and red threads. I get very poetic about the writing process and all the similarities between the sound composition and the written text, and I get into the technical details and my methods of both those processes. I also share my struggles with exhaustion and loneliness, and contemplate whether I am resting or procrastinating when I am not working. I try to explain how this auto-fictional work and isolated lifestyle has blurred the lines between fiction and reality, and how I might be performing the sound of my everyday life without realising it. In this chapter I also expand on the performance aspect of the work, a concert iteration titled Narrative Noise performed on an orchestra of old ghettoblasters, and reveal what my future plans are in that direction.

For inquiries about purchasing The Silence of Sea Tower on cassette tape, send an email to verbal.art@protonmail.com

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30: Xenia Ramm / Me, Myself & Our Thesis (Pt.1)

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 18:26:51 GMT

For this milestone episode I thought it was a good time to check in with myself, and try another round of interviewing myself - exactly one year since the first attempt. And when I talk to myself we never end, so this is a conceptual episode in several chapters. I did two long interviews with myself in my studio in Helsinki, one in the daytime and one in the middle of the night, and then I edited parts of these recordings together as one long conversation - it ended up so long that I had to divide it into several episodes, so here is the first part of a long talk between me, myself and I about our master's thesis project The Silence of Sea Tower, an ambient noise sound art project that I self-published on cassette tape this Spring.

In this chapter I invite you into the magical realism of my studio, where I have been living and recording the sound of my surroundings the last year. I discuss the myth of neutral, objective field recording, the personality traits of kitchen appliances and the voices of tube lights, and reflect on my own role as performer in my everyday soundscape. I also explain how it feels to live in secrecy in my workspace, how I navigate the shared sounding space of the building, and how my way of listening to myself and my surroundings has changed during this project.

For inquiries about purchasing The Silence of Sea Tower on cassette tape, send an email to verbal.art@protonmail.com

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29: Laura Lowe / Structural Colour

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 03:00:30 GMT

I meet Laura Lowe in her studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, to look at her very large paintings of gloomy yet shiny, abstract landscapes. We discuss when a painting is dead or alive, the decay and resurrection of landscape painting in the era of climate change, and Laura tells how she went from self-taught artist to alchemist in the paint lab. She describes the technical process of working with structural colour (and what that even is), the difference to painting and sculpting a picture, and she tells about her long experimental process of creating iridescent paint and working with light-reflection. We talk about the practical aspects of scaling up and working from tiny samples to large canvases, and how the exhibition space affects the artwork. Laura also explains how to turn roadkill into taxidermy sculptures, and we talk a bit about coal.

Laura's website

Laura's Instagram

Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki's website

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28: Roberto Fusco / The Paper Storm

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 03:00:41 GMT

I meet Roberto Fusco in HAA Gallery, on the old military island Suomenlinna close to Helsinki, to talk about his and Emma Fält's multimedia installation in the group exhibition Sweet Water, Rough Water. Roberto explains how he has translated numeric data of waves in the ocean into computer animations, and then laser-engraved selected stills onto paper. We talk about the serenity of storms, the poetics of meteorology, and capturing a secret moment in time and making it last forever for everyone to see. We discuss how artists and scientists can work with the same material with each their objectives and procedures, how different premises affect the process, and what it means to take creative license when the raw data is insufficient. We also talk about remote collaboration, and how precious it can be to find yourself in a well-functioning artist duo.

This episode contains samples of the original installation-sound by Roberto, which I have composed for the intro part of this episode.

HAA Gallery's website

HAA Gallery's Facebook page

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27: Fjolla Hoxha / Theatre History

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 03:00:09 GMT

In this experimental participatory-audio-performance-turned-into-podcast episode, I talk to Fjolla Hoxha about her investigative theatre performance What is seen and what’s (left) behind the scene? in Studio Pasila in Helsinki. We learn about the history of Finnish theatre - the Helsinki City Theatre movement in particular - and talk about the invisible labour happening behind the stage. We discuss dramaturgy, the differences between theatre and performance art, the role of the director, and the relationships and dynamics between all the creative decision makers in an art production. Fjolla also tells about being Albanian during the war in Kosovo, how she learned about self-organised forms of resistance and collective perseverance while studying in illegal, underground schools, and how she has later developed creative writing methods to work with her memories and trauma.

This episode contains clips from the original audio piece from the performance, with sound design and editing by Timo Viialainen (re-edited by me for this podcast), and ambient recordings from the performance, recorded by me. The original performance-audio contains archival material, and reenacted interviews with present-day theatre workers.

Fjolla's Instagram

Fjolla's research

(sound designer) Timo's website

What is seen and what's (left) behind the scene?

Helsinki City Theatre's website

Studio Pasila's website

Hodja from Pjort on IMDB

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26: Yun-Chen Chang / Tables & Dreams

Wed, 19 Jul 2023 17:59:12 GMT

I visit Yun-Chen Chang's performance/exhibition Relax on a Shaky Ground, in the White Studio in the Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki. We talk about inviting other artists into multidisciplinary collaborations, how to dance with tables, what it takes for an item to change from functional object to art piece or inanimate performer, how many sounds you can produce with one table - and how to avoid being labeled as a furniture-artist. We also discuss the concept of an ongoing, evolving sculpture installation and soundscape, what it means to respond to existing architecture, and how to morph a space without changing its aesthetic characteristics. Yun-Chen reflects on the artist's bodily presence in a performance, and explains how a choreographed structure created safety for improvisation in this project. We also talk about earthquakes, how the feeling of being (away from) home can manifest itself in your dreams, turning embodied memories into spatial experiences, and whether we live several lives when we are asleep.

This episode contains ambient sound from one of Yun-Chen's performances recorded by me, with original sound design by Jouni Ilari Tapio and music performance by Teemu Mustonen. This episode also contains selected dreams from Yun-Chen's dream diary, recorded by the artist for the exhibition.

Yun-Chen's Instagram

Yun-Chen's Facebook page

Jouni's Instagram

LAPS' website

LAPS' Facebook page

White Studio's website

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25: Natalie Hamada / War and Prints

Wed, 12 Jul 2023 03:00:29 GMT

Natalie Hamada talks us through her solo exhibition of serigraphy prints, Tell all the truth but tell it slant, in Myymälä2 gallery in Helsinki, and meanwhile she tells us about her life in Syria, the war, and how she moved to Finland to study her master's in the art academy right when the country shut down for the first lockdown. We learn about her collage-style silk screen-printing technique, working with many layers and strong colours on different paper materials, and she explains how she mixes old family photographs with found images, working somewhere between memory and imagination, to create a new kind of photo album of familiar characters. We talk about the loneliness of moving to a new country on your own, studying and creating art in pandemic isolation, and how to integrate and establish a life after graduation. This episode contains the stark contrast between Natalie's delicate, colourful prints, and the heavy, dark experiences of living in an active war zone, and I am very grateful that she shared her stories with me and allowed me to share them with you.

Natalie's website

Natalie's Instagram

Myymälä2's website

Myymälä2's Facebook page

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24: Madeleine Andersson / Artist Residency

Wed, 05 Jul 2023 15:32:22 GMT

This episode is a triptych experiment wherein I visit Madeleine Andersson three times in Helsinki Cable Factory, during her three month artist residency in HIAP. We have an ongoing conversation about her artistic research on - among other things - speculative theory, radical stupidity, petrosexuality and toilet-science, and her first stay in Finland. She talks us through her ideas, challenges and decisions along the way, and as I follow the progress of her work, we simultaneously form a new friendship off record. We talk about different work methods and -motivations, how this form of self-employment affects your personal life and mental state, and we get to follow the expansion of Madeleine's mind map on the wall in her studio as her projects evolve. This is a fragmented, intimate insight into the (slightly chaotic) process of developing an artistic project, from pitch to final shape, and a discussion of the academic aspects of art, and how it can overlap with science and philosophy. We branch out and touch on many different topics, and reflect on some of the premises and opportunities that go along with an artist career, such as the concept of artist residencies. And we laugh, quite a lot!

Madeleine's website

HIAP's website

HIAP's Facebook page

Cable Factory's website

Cable Factory's Facebook page

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23: Jenni Haili / Ambrotype Travels

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 13:42:53 GMT

Jenni Haili takes me on a historical photography tour through the eyes of her great-great-aunt Fanny and her great-aunt Signe, two women from each side of her family tree and each side of Finland, who both left their home at a young age in the beginning of the 20th century and moved to America. Jenni has researched their relocations and travelled in their footsteps, visualising their lives in an installation of overlapping places and time: a suggestive reconstruction of lost memories. For her solo exhibition Voyage Out in Forum Box gallery in Helsinki, she has made a vast collection of new ambrotypes, mixing historical, current and imagined landscapes and cityscapes, using the distinct photo technique as an aesthetic glue for her collage. Jenni guides us through the two timelines chronologically, while we get to know about the history and chemistry of the delicate, old school process of working with wet plate collodion photography. We also talk about creative compromises and ongoing projects, and getting to know your own family through historical and artistic research.

Jenni's website

Jenni's Instagram

Forum Box's website

Forum Box's Facebook page

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22: Marloes van Son & Minerva Juolahti / Sound Art

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 03:00:00 GMT

I visit [of sound] sonic arts exhibition by Äänen Lumo in Oksasenkatu 11 gallery in Helsinki, for an all-round chat with one of the artists, Marloes van Son, and one of the curators, Minerva Juolahti. From each their perspective, they tell me about the enduring process from open call through pre-production to installation, and finally observing the audience's meeting with the works. We talk about curation as an art form, the practicalities of being one piece out of many in the puzzle of a group show, and we get some technical insight into the electronics and programming of Marloes' interactive installation of sounding chairs. We also talk more generally about the sound art-scene in Helsinki, and how they and other artists are experimenting with the genre and creating opportunities for it to expand. And, last but not least, we take a walk through the gallery so you can hear the different artworks and how they affect each other in the space.

Äänen Lumo's Facebook page

Oksasenkatu 11's website

Oksasenkatu 11's Facebook page

Oksasenkatu 11's Instagram

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21: Eetu Vekki & Corinne Mustonen / AI Collaboration

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 17:56:40 GMT

I talk with Eetu Vekki and Corinne Mustonen about the interdisciplinary exhibition and performance collaboration Ex Machina in The Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki's gallery Kuva/Tila. We sit in the middle of Eetu's sculptural light installation of AI-produced images engraved into paper, and we are immersed in a soundscape by Murrettumeri. In a series of dance performances, Corinne interpreted Eetu's work with her body and activated the installation, based on a translation process where the graphical images were interpreted as a dance score, choreographed by Eetu and performed by Corinne. We talk about collaborative strategies and collective production methods, Eetu explains how he has experimented with Midjourney AI to produce a new form of musical notes, and Corinne tells about how the outside eye of a choreographer can give her the freedom of intuitive expression when dancing, and how she considers her body to be an archive of movement. We also touch on the question of authorship when people and AI co-create, and reflect on the similarities and differences between machines working with prompts and the human body interpreting other media into dance. Eetu and Corinne talk about how the group has been translating between different creatives languages and materials, transforming text to images into music and dance, reading every variation as music- or dance scores.

This episode contains sound clips recorded by me, from the Ex Machina performance by Eetu Vekki & co. Original sound design by Murrettumeri, costume design by Raisa Raudas, and violin by Meriheini Luoto.

Murrettumeri's Instagram

Murrettumeri on Soundcloud

Raisa's Instagram

Ex Machina on Facebook

Kuva/Tila's website

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20: TADaCollective / Dance Performance

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 14:48:32 GMT

I meet three dancers in The Theatre Academy Helsinki, for a chat about their joint graduation show in the master's programme of dance. We discuss performance vs. dance, when improvisation turns into choreography, and how to study dance without dancing. They explain how they collectively self-produced this show, we discuss what it means to collaborate with sound- and light designers as co-authors, and we talk about costume choices - or the choice to not wearing any(thing). We examine how their performances evolved during preproduction and between shows, and they tell about the considerations they had to make when composing a long show with very different acts. We also learn some cool things about body-knowledge, and how dance-moves can travel around the world and transfer between people!

Sonja Karoliina Aaltonen, Jacqueline Aylward and Iris Blauberg are part of TADaCollective, and this episode contains sound clips recorded by me, from the performances ...like crazy by Sonja Karoliina Aaltonen, Jacqueline Aylward and Maja Kalafatić, and Ones Loved and lost now just white. by Iris Blauberg, both performances with sound design by Lauri Kallio, light design by Lauri Hietala, and costume design by Kasia Gorniak.

TADaCollective on Uniarts' website

Jacqui's website

Sonja's Instagram

Iris' Instagram

(sound) Lauri's Instagram

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19: Jere Suontausta / Light

Wed, 31 May 2023 03:00:37 GMT

I am back in Asbestos gallery in Helsinki for Jere Suontausta's solo exhibition Imponderabilia, consisting of a series of light-sculptures made of old cookie cutters and other recycled metal items. We have a long talk about working with light: acting as a technician or an artist, using light as a material for sculptural and spatial artworks or as a performance method, light as a collaborative tool in concert and theatre productions. None of us are experts in the more scientific end of the conversation, but we do get into some philosophical physics as well because of pure amazement with this strange, intangible medium.

Jere's website

Asbestos Art Space's website

FLASH's website

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18: Hilda Kahra & Philip Lernhammar / Drawings

Wed, 24 May 2023 03:00:00 GMT

Can you talk about drawings for almost two hours? Yes, you can! Philip Lernhammar and Hilda Kahra show me a selection of drawings from their previous duo exhibition Outside was a circle, where they presented a combined collection of almost 80 drawings. We talk about all aspects of this fundamental medium: what to draw, where to draw, how to draw, what to draw on, and what to do with the drawings when they are done. We get into the emotional side of ripping a work out of a notebook, hanging it on the wall, and parting with it when somebody buys it. We also touch on the subject of being Swedish in Finland, and the financial implications that carries in the Finnish art world.

Outside was a circle on Facebook

Hilda's drawing blog

Hilda's Instagram

TILA galleria's website

TILA galleria on Facebook

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17: Eoin O’Dowd / Irish Folklore

Wed, 17 May 2023 03:34:37 GMT

For this episode I visited two venues in Helsinki: Asbestos Art Space, for an exhibition interview, and Musta Kissa bar, for Irish folk music jam. Eoin O'Dowd is a visual artist and musician, and he talks us through his exhibition Behind the Walls Tickling the Bricks while educating us on Irish culture, and explaining how he connects to his homeland from abroad. We get to know about religious influences in his works - Christian and folklore mysticism, we talk music- and pub traditions, and we even learn a bit about sports!

Eoin's website

Eoin's Instagram

Eoin on Bandcamp

Asbestos Art Space's website

Helsinki Harps' Instagram

Musta Kissa's Facebook page

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16: Fru Amager / Party Decor

Wed, 10 May 2023 03:00:58 GMT

Fru Amager hosts me for a late-night visit in her work studio in Amager, as we have a chat about working in festive environments and inventing visual identities for different types of clients, from night clubs to mainstream brands. We talk about what it means to create an atmosphere and understand the party as a social installation, and we get a look behind the scene of (a part of) Copenhagen's nightlife from the perspective of a deco-artist. We also discuss how you can invent your own job and create a career that fits your lifestyle, and how you can create an alter ego as part of your personal brand management. This is a chance to get to know Fru Amager's real name, and the story of how she became Fru Amager!

Fru Amager's Instagram

Deco Darlings' Instagram

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15: Michel Winckler-Krog / VJ & Stage Production

Wed, 03 May 2023 03:00:43 GMT

In the underground movie theatre Byens Lys, in freetown Christiania in Copenhagen, I meet Michel Winckler-Krog for a talk about VJing. We discuss the cabaret Maskefald that he has made visuals for, he tells about the many kinds of projects and different approaches his career entails, and we reflect on the fact that a lot of AV-people we know are moving from party-productions to theatre work. We also talk about his media collective Hackstage, the ups and downs of collaborative stage production, and we get some technical insight on software choices and hardware rigging.

Hackstage's website

Hackstage's Facebook page

Hackstage's Instagram

Maskefald's Facebook page

Byens Lys' Facebook page

Christiania's website

Christiania's Facebook page

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14: Kim Klevin / Tattoos

Wed, 26 Apr 2023 03:00:54 GMT

Kim Klevin and I talk all about tattoos, while Kim tattoos me! We talk about exhibiting on walls vs. on people's skin, and what to do when your taste changes and you regret one of the artworks you carry around. We look through his sketchbook, talk about drawing cartoons and inventing mutated doomsday animals, and Kim tells about his work as an illustrator, making posters and other drawing-commissions.

Kim's Instagram

Tanis' website

Doof! Media's website

How To Be Gay with Josh Thomas

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13: Trine Trash / Music & Poetry

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 03:00:09 GMT

Local legend Trine Trash invites me into her home in Copenhagen, to show me her instruments and talk about dedicating your life to art. She explains how her (a)typical work-week looks, tells tales from a life on stage, and reflect on how the job changed with pandemic restrictions. Trine also tells the story of how she became Trine Trash, and we discuss what it means to create a life and career around yourself as a performative persona. We get to know about her many music projects and her musical background, and she plays a song for us on her piano! We also get into a philosophical discussion on poetry, and we -obviously- talk a bit about dogs.

Trine mentions a lot of collaborations and artist-collegues, so here is a long list of links:

Trine Trash on Youtube

Trine Trash Bandcamp

Crusty Bangfire & the Hilarious Omen Soundcloud

Fastpoholmen Soundcloud

Uffe Lorenzen Soundcloud

Hola Ghost website

Music By Idiots website

Vokadin Soundcloud

Oliver Hunter Soundcloud

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12: Lotta Hurnanen / Film Soup & Farming

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 12:55:23 GMT

Lotta Hurnanen takes me on an excursion to two of her special outdoor spots in Helsinki. We talk about experimental photography techniques, and leaving your film or prints outdoors for up to several weeks to let nature work its wonders. We sit in a ditch next to a highway, where Lotta let her film rolls soak in a little stream of water, in order to make psychedelic landscape photography. Afterwards we visit a community allotment garden, and Lotta tells about how she is simultaneously studying to become an artist and a gardener, and how she has realised that she would rather work on a farm than in the artworld; feeding the world food instead of art. She also explains how you can print the shape of melting ice with cyanotype, and we get to learn a bit about plants!

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11: Ostaritutkimuksia / Shopping Mall Investigations

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 13:20:45 GMT

Ostaritutkimuksia - Shopping Mall Investigations is an artistic research project by Salla Valle and Miina Pohjolainen, exploring the history and future of shopping centres in Helsinki. We meet in Konala, a northern suburb of Helsinki, where they have turned an old dentist clinic in a 1960s shopping arcade into a temporary art space. We talk about the sociocultural significance of shopping centres in the history of Finnish urbanisation, how these spaces are remnants of a lost suburban dream, and that their upcoming demolition shows how city planning values and capitalist strategies are changing. Miina and Salla show me the group exhibition they have curated, and we talk about our collaborative film screening (de)construction. They also tell me about the local relationships they have formed, with the neighbouring bar and pizzeria, and local residents of the area, and how they have included these people and places in the project.

Ostaritutkimuksia's website

Ostaritutkimuksia's Facebook page

Ostaritutkimuksia's Instagram

Kino Club's Facebook page

Kino Club's Instagram

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10: Toivo Heinimäki & Tommi Pasanen / Football-Shelter Exhibition

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 13:20:12 GMT

In a small wooden shed by a football field, on an island in Helsinki, Tommi Pasanen and Toivo Heinimäki tell me about their pop-up exhibition Laajasalo Summer Exhibition. They took over the public space for a weekend in July 2022, where they painted the shed and installed a collection of paintings and photographs to create an outdoor gallery in the quiet, residential area. We talk about moving art out of the art world and letting it pop up in unexpected places, and how artists can also feel misplaced in gallery spaces with white walls.

Tommi's Instagram

Toivo's website

Toivo's Instagram

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09: Pernille Pedersen / Reimagined Everyday Items

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 20:25:39 GMT

I spend an afternoon in an old, echoey water tower in Copenhagen, talking to my old friend Pernille Pedersen about her exhibition Recreational Activities. She explains how she has repurposed common objects such as jeans and bras, turning them into crawling sculptures in the shadows of the tower, and how she hopes the audience will make their own interpretations about her work. Pernille describes how she explores topics such as sexual dynamics, gender roles and implied aesthetics, and how she questions normalised truths by suggesting alternative narratives, using multiple mediums and a lot of humour. Also: family pizza, horses, and serious acoustic reverb!

Brønshøj Vandtårn's Facebook page

Brønshøj Vandtårn's Instagram

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08: Xenia Ramm / Me, Myself & Our Podcast

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 20:20:03 GMT

In this experimental speciality of an episode, I interview myself in my childhood home in Copenhagen. I talk about making this podcast series, how I use conversation as a tool and material in my art practice, and I explain how long COVID brought my focus into my ears, because I was too light-sensitive to look at electronic screens. I also talk a bit about my family and the area I grew up in, and reflect on how I have tried to navigate as an expat in Finland the past few years.

Oma Taidetalo's website (still horribly un-updated)

Oma Taidetalo's Facebook

Oma Taidetalo's Instagram

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07: Tanja Silvestrini & Victoria Løvheim / Performance & Public Space

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 02:23:29 GMT

Tanja Silvestrini and Victoria Løvheim invite me into their home in Helsinki, to talk about different kinds of performance art. Tanja show me their homemade animal costumes and explain their plans to let people temporarily adopt them as a pet, and Victoria tell about being a drag queen as a woman. We treat the subject of co-inhabiting urban, public space, and the behavioural patterns we often collectively exhibit when we move around the city on our own, and Tanja tell how they met the Finnish people in public as a bear in a park. We also get the story of how Tanja had some artworks stolen, and we talk about adapting performance practices to pandemic lockdowns.

Tanja's website

Tanja's Instagram

Victoria's Instagram

Emma Fended's Instagram

Trashy Bohemian Bi Pan Thruple's Instagram

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06: SASHAPASHA / Memories & Heritage

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 02:14:59 GMT

Artist duo SASHAPASHA (Sasha and Pavel Rotts) talk us through their exhibition Fragile Narratives in Galleria Huuto in Helsinki, where they have mixed childhood artefacts, early artworks, inherited memories, and new works, referencing their combined history and a collective past. They take us on a journey through their childhood in the Soviet Union and their grandparents' relocation to Finland, and we discuss the current situation - at the time, Russias recent invasion of Ukraine, and Finland's upcoming decision regarding NATO membership - in relation to their personal generational war-trauma, and we talk about the history of other Russian border-regions. They explain about being Russian outside of Russia in this time, and how they protest oppression in their home country from abroad. We also talk about what it means to be a married artist duo, and how it is possible to share all aspects of life as a continuous collaboration.

SASHAPASHA's website

Sasha's Instagram

Pavel's Instagram

NO PUTIN NO's Instagram

Galleria Huuto's website

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05: Harriina Räinä / Japanese Woodcut

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 07:51:43 GMT

Harriina Räinä explains all about her solo exhibition The Other as Matter in Helsinki Art Museum (HAM): a large-scale, minimalist printmaking installation utilising old Japanese woodcut techniques and tools. We talk about traveling across the world to study traditional methods, and the invisible collaboration that automatically happens when you work with tools or materials containing animal products.

Harriina's website

Harriina's Instagram

HAM's website

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04: Verneri Salonen / Scooter Sculpture

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 07:50:17 GMT

Verneri Salonen talks us through his solo exhibition Timeless Racing in Project Room gallery in Helsinki, and gives us a peak into the world of motorcycle-enthusiasts. We talk about growing up in the Finnish countryside and driving a moped from the age of 5, maturing and realising that you ideals have outgrown your passion, and using art as a farewell tribute when closing a chapter of your life.

Verneri's website

Project Room's Facebook page

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03: Natalie Seifert Eliassen / Participatory Breast Sculpture

Wed, 08 Mar 2023 17:20:52 GMT

I talk to Natalie Seifert Eliassen in the Kuva/Tila gallery of the Fine Arts Academy of Helsinki, where she has built her Breastfall: a waterfall constructed by sculptures of breasts, made from casts of volunteered audience bodies during the exhibition period. We discuss body image issues, nudity in art and society, and how it might be possible to reclaim your body and sexuality and set your breasts free, so to say. Natalie also explains about her process working with other bodies, and how she treats this sensitive area of people exposing themselves and becoming her material.

Natalie's website

Natalie's Instagram

Kuva/Tila's website

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02: Arvid van der Rijt & Juliana Irene Smith / Multimedia Catharsis

Wed, 08 Mar 2023 17:07:02 GMT

I visit Juliana Irene Smith and Arvid van der Rijt in the underground war-shelter-turned-art-venue Free Art Space in Helsinki. They have made their first collaborative installation More Please, reminiscing about their youth and dealing with childhood trauma using each their mediums of choice in one big immersive collage. Arvid explains how he works with sound and video in his live-reactive setup, and Juliana describes how she uses recycled textiles, paint and personal photographs in her rainbow catharsis. We also talk about how it feels to work with your partner, when family becomes collaboration.

Free Art Space website

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01: Cosmo Großbach / Analogue Photography

Wed, 08 Mar 2023 16:57:05 GMT

In this very first episode of my podcast career, recorded in March 2022, I talk to Cosmo Großbach about analogue photography in Värinä Color Darkroom in Helsinki, and Cosmo explains how it is different to work with colour compared to black and white. We talk about moving around and studying and working in different countries, and shooting large format photography in the nature. Cosmo also brought his favourite camera for a little show and tell, and we take a look at his photo series from a small Norwegian island.

Cosmo's website

Cosmo's Instagram

Värinä Darkroom website

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