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20161016

Visited the Yayoi Kusamas “In Infinity” exhibition at the HAM museum yesterday. I was invited on site by Anna-Sofia Tuominen from TeaK whom I got to know during the “Horse and Performance” course this Autumn. A student group from TeaK presented short stories based on Kusamas life and mimicked some of her famous performances and fashion looks from the 60ties. They worked in every corner of the exhibition space, used spoken word, worked physically and engaged with the audience. The acts entertained kids which was usefull as I got to examine some works in detail. 

I liked her gouache paintings and there was an oil painting “Pacific Ocean” from 1960 which I fell in love with. It felt like a perfect example of an artwork which mixes Japanese illustration techniques and conceptual approaches. The exhibition didn’t analyse her career, artistic motivations or thinking that’s gone into making the artworks. As a retrospective it glorified Kusamas career and brilliance. A lot of focus was drawn to her mental healt issues and the artist “fragile mind” was underlined to certify her artistic qualities. Mental health issues seem to be popular branding tools. Some works felt very gimmicky and her later works were highly commercialised. 

The installations were joyful and fun to engage with together with a seven year old kid. There were mirrors, bright colours and unearthly shapes. I took particular pride in making the phallic and vulvic symbols understandable. Elderly exhibition guests blushed while I was educating my kid how to read the imagery.

Bought a OnePlus 3 phone. 

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20161014

Videos of Antti Salminen investigating how art is going to change as we run out of oil, Eeva Anttila presenting dance as the ultimate post-fossil artform (she’s arguing in a modern fashion) and Jesse Sipola living the dream.

Learning “The Theory of Affordances” by James J. Gibson (The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, 1979) in an effort to understand how animals change the way we perceive our surroundings. As we learn to work with the animal we are granted new “affordances” to the environment and collaboration between horses and humans build habits which benefit both species. Jussi Parikka cites  J.J Gibson in his “Mutating Media Ecologies” (2015) article. The controversial concept of Niche Construction also offers interesting routes for investigation!

When investigating affordances I found a funny fitness project by Anne-Marie Skriver Hansen “Bringing Performance Art into Everyday Life Situations“.

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20161009

Stuck in Turku. Waiting for a technician to let me in the Tehdas-theater space so that I can fetch my kettlebells and synths. Went for lunch at a nearby restaurant. Asked the bartender for the menu. He begged me not to order food as the oven takes so long to warm up. He suggested that I buy a microwave meal from the nearby shop, so he could warm it for me in the micro. A novel way to eat out.

New Performance Turku events went well. The tone of the performances I saw was “uniform serious performance art”. Alejandra Herrera Silva presented “The Water” at Titanik Gallery. She stripped, broke vine glasses, bled and got drunk. John Court pushed enormous wooden cylinders around a school courtyard making a monument for dyslexia. Alexander del Re’s piece was about indirect gazes and indirect ways of approaching others (using mirrors) but I only saw the end of the piece. He had invited Salla Valle to collaborate in it (I remember her performing at an uplifting Là-bas event). Mark Harvey presented a humorous piece at the Turku Castle. He acted as the king and motivated the audience to rebuild the Kalmar Union.

The evening with Pilvi Porkola went reasonably well. I was nervous about my contribution and failed to follow the piece in full detail. She baked, dyed her hair, told short stories about her life and prepared the space. I was invited on stage midway the act and introduced myself as a choreographer.  We made a series of kettlebell warm up exercises and after this she continued baking and chatting casually with the audience. When she went off stage to wash the dye of her hair Mark was invited to entertain people and I served as a sports commentator for his dance act (Ray Langenbach complement the blunt taunting commentary). As she returned, Antti Manninen was invited to talk with the audience and gradually the piece converted into a faux house party.

The artwork casted a critical view on the structures and conventions of performance art. Pilvi made the efforts of durational and endurance demanding performances vein by illustrating how difficult it is to perform everyday tasks like putting your socks on while standing on one feet or chatting casually while cooking. A highlight of the piece was when she made microwave popcorn. Jesse Sipola made a surprise appearance during the party phase as a DJ and we ended the night drink Ferned Branka at the Monk. I didn’t get the opportunity to chat with other performers at the festival. I missed some pieces I wanted to see.