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20170915

Co-hosted a talk-shop at the Lauttasaari library on Thursday with Leena Kela and Heini Aho (Neighborizome crew). The event investigated the processes of “Forgetting & Decaying” in relation to an upcoming public artwork “The Garden of Decay”(?) by Maria Teeri and Janne Nabb. The piece will installed at the Lauttasaari Mansion which Kone foundation will launch as a residency/office/community/art space (Expected to open summer 2018).

Neurologist and emeritus professor of geriatrics Raimo Sulkava saved the event by giving a relaxed and easygoing description on how memories are formed (through repetition). We discussed bronze statues in our cities as cultural memories, which Sulkava replied to by presenting “The Garden of Decay” as a positive response: The shape of the artwork is constantly changing and it’s rotting away but it can still be considered valuable and artistic – Such as we should approach the elderly.

Visited HAM yesterday for the Eero Nelimarkka exhibition opening. The house was full of people! There were some distant relatives present too but I felt too lazy to introduce myself. The exhibition was boring and the catalogue texts celebrated Nelimarkka as a genius. Some statements were fatally incorrect: “Nelimarkka was a chauvinist, which was normal in his time”. He was definitely a chauvinist but there has never been anything “normal” about it. The text was written by Riitta Nelimarkka.

Two critiques on the exhibition Helsingin Sanomat and Yle – Kulttuuri.

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20170911

Good site for a mural in the spirit of perma-graffiti.

Bastl instruments service and customer care is efficient. My new Dude mixer had issues, I send it back, they fixed it and it’s currently being delivered by FedEx. The whole issue was solved in five days.

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20170908

– Hi, Eero Yli-Vakkuri here. I’d like to order a blank painting canvas.
– Allright. What size do you have in mind?
– I don’t know. What’s a normal size for a painting?
– Normal? Well it depends on what you are painting. We can make any size of canvas you want. Are you painting a landscape or a portrait?
– I don’t really know. I guess I’m not really painting. I just want the canvas and to present it as an art object.
– Oh. Well you still need to tell me the size and other specifications. Do you want it primed or not and other details.
– Jeah. I think it would be nice if it were primed with gesso. White gesso, I think and I guess it’s both a landscape and a portrait. But I’m not sure about the size. What would you recommend?
– If you don’t know the size I don’t think we can help you. I can’t give you a prize for the work or..
– What are you currently working on?
– I’m currently framing a painting.
– What size is it?
– It’s about 50x55cm. It’s a still life. No… Wait, let me check. It’s 53x55cm.
– Ok. Is that be a size you could make for me too?
– Sure, we can make any size of a canvas you want.
– Yeah. I’ll take the 53x55cm.
– Primed with white gesso?
– Yes, please. Do you think it should be framed too?
– It’s really not for me to say. We can have it framed but normally a frame is selected for the painting. The frame depends on its colors it has and so on.
– I don’t plan on painting anything on it. It would just be left as it is.
– I don’t know what would be the point of framing it then. The frame is intended to protect the painting and to make it look better but if there there is no painting, I don’t think that the frame would do anything to it.
– So no frame then?
– I don’t personally see the point but we can put a frame to it.
– What’s the most normal type of frame you use with paintings.
– It depends very much on the colors and theme of the painting and what our clients want. Some want just plain wood with lacquer, other want a gilded frame. The idea is that the frame does not to disturb the artwork and protects it. The painting I have here is going to be framed with a simple wood with transparent lacquer frame.
– I like it. Can you use that for my canvas too?
– Sure. It’s not a problem to me.
– Great. I’d like to order one.
– A blank canvas 53x55cm with a plain wooden frame?
– Yes.
– When do you want it to be ready?
– What time suits you best?
– When do you need?
– I don’t know if I really need it. Anytime which suits you best..
– In two weeks?
– Ok.
– Ok. We’ll have the canvas and frame ready for you in two weeks.
– Great. I’ll come get it then! Thank you very much.
– Sure. It will be ready by then and you can fetch it from the workshop using your name as a reference.

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20170905

Author Jari Ehrnrooth has written a hostile and offensive text: “Pahuuden kieltäminen ei auta” (Denying evil doesn’t help) and got it published through YLE, our national broadcasting company. The text is using the Turku attacks to target muslims and other religious groups. He claims that the attack in Turku was executed using “Isis-style knife handling” and that “islam is still an authoritarian and expansive world religion, which strictest forms include appalling amounts of mental submission, physical violence and murder”. He continues to speculate about a “righteous terrorist-mother, kissing her little-jihadist, who is send to the daycare center on a be-a-hero-for-a-day event wearing a fake-bomb-vest around his chest – As is happening in Gaza”.

I send a complaint to YLE which is responsible for publishing the text. Ehrnrooth holds the title of adjunct professor in the universities of Turku and Helsinki (he signed his text highlighting the title). I wrote to Thomas Wilhelmsson the chancellor of Hki Uni. and Professor of Cultural History Marjo Kaartinen in Turku, asking them to distance their universities and departments from Ehrnrooth. I got a sympathetic reply but I was explained that adjunct professor is a only a title and that the person is not employed by the university. The message also underlined the autonomy and right to freedom of speech of their researches. This was a weak argument. There is no “free speech” in relations others are targeted based on their religion. #ॐ

Send my Dude mixer back to Brno. Included a short letter explaining the problem and a postscriptum: “Ps. My favourite Czech performance artist is Jiří Kovanda. I’ve worked for an old Finnish lady Outi Heiskanen who had performed with a Czech group called Crusaders’ School of Pure Humour Without Joke in the 70ties. I own a hobby-anvil made from a tram-rail (made in and bought from Prague) and an axe manufactured in “Czechoslovakia”. I’ve visited Brno once, only passed through. Here is a video of me making macho-coffee in Prague 2009.”