SuomiSelf-portrait as a subsidized artist, vol. 3
I wrote the first Self-portrait as a subsidized artist for Valkeapää–Hoffrén’s performance 10 journeys to a place where nothing happens, in autumn 2010. Writing that I was living the last year of a three-year grant by the Finnish Cultural Foundation. I told how it was like to be a subsidized artist – I could do… Read more
About the mission of art etc, once again
Teemu Mäki and many others have written, thoughtfully, about art’s mission and significance. The matter pops up in my mind quite often. And it bothers me. Now and then I find that I’m an art police, who declares that something, that has been named as art and is sold as such, is not art. Like… Read more
Some words about my background
Juho Laitinen, who organizes the club Tulkinnanvaraista, asked me three questions about my background. How have you come to make music? I began to make art with Jaakko Nousiainen, as a vocal improvisation duo called kesken. We made voices, not music. Also my theatre studies background pushed me away from music. Shortly, we made vocal… Read more
Rehearsal
With Taito, we rehearsed our up-coming performance Pelko/Fear at Kajaani Poetry Week on 4-6 July, 2018. We prepared three different scenes, Letter, Ghost and Safecave. Three sessions a day for three days. We’ve been on the issue for a year. These were our first rehearsals. Right away with audience. At the beginning of each session… Read more
What does it mean?
I visited Kontula with A Wooden Guy. People looked at it and asked, what it means. It is a question, that fills me with astonishment, always. Then I smile, and seeking friendly, not demeaning tone, say, you tell me. Tell me, what it means. It meant something to me, when I was sculpting it, and… Read more
What makes this art?
Yesterday, in Publics, I listened to a very interesting lecture by Jeanne Van Heeswijk. It was titled “Imagination – a collective exercise of care”. Philadelphia Museum of Art had asked her to ponder on the relationship between the museum and the city. The result was a terrific, communal tour de force, that culminated into an exhibition in… Read more
A precept
For years, as principle of my art making, I’ve used phrase “Keep it stupid and simple” by Juhani Tamminen, a Finnish ice hockey legend. Maybe it has come time to update it with a thought by Imre Kertész: “People need simple phrases, bread, solidarity, laughter.” (Gályanapló) Photo: Cecilia Mandrile (City Talk)
Gályanapló
Reading Imre Kertész’ diary from years 1961–91, Gályanapló, I wonder his notes that I pay attention to, that I see. It seems like they belong to two groups. Majority of them strengthen my own thoughts, and many are connected to art making and humanity, like (my translation) Art is the most natural of all the… Read more
Ethos
Lately, ethos has become a trendy concept. We talk about the ethos of an artist or an art work. Does this mean that we have become more moral? Ethos means habit or moral character, moral vision. It makes also root for ethics. Talking about ethos, are we calling for ethicality? Photo: Maija Blåfield (Boy’s Toys)
Virtuoso and multi-disciplinary aficionado
Today morning I thank artist Teemu Mäki, who, in his essay Toolbox (Työkalupakki, in Näkyvä pimeys, 2005, lame translation mine), deals with a subject, that is not unusual for me: “Giving up admiration for and demand of virtuosity is above all a philosophical decision. A virtuoso artist masters her/his instruments, and thus rises above her/his materials and works.… Read more
