THE GUNSI VOG BLOG

Kitchen

2010-06-26T12:11:00.002+03:00

These images are fast photoshop sketches, a play with pixels. The original image is from my kitchen in Berlin, at Wildenbruchstrasse. I don't miss it. The rats where literally dancing on the table. Not everything can be beautiful...

Suggestopedia

2010-06-23T23:58:00.003+03:00

This week, seven hours a day, 'm learning Spanish with a method called suggestopedia. Learning by acting. I wanted to try this for a long time. It's brilliant and I would recommend it's use in any language pedagogy.

Stop being lazy Gun

2010-06-19T09:48:00.004+03:00

After many years abroad I now live in my own country again. Somehow it makes more sense to blog from here. I'm going to upload fast photoshop sketches like this one, photos, videos, maybe write something but maybe not...

This image is about pushing and pushing and pushing just for the joy of it, not for getting anywhere....

Abstraction in video

2009-10-28T13:35:00.004+02:00

Working in the spirit of Stan Brakhage.

Spring in Berlin 2

2009-04-22T01:52:00.007+03:00

Animation with a kaleidoskope

2009-04-16T12:07:00.004+03:00

A collaborative work with Markus Åström. With the help of a kaleidoskope and live streaming the audience manually produced their own animations. The Nekro Döner was presented at BUNKER Fest: SAUNA-FILM-DANCE-ROCK-VIDEO-PERFORMANCE-DJ-SCHWIMM-POLKA that took place 24th of January in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The happening was organized and curated by Maria Duncker as a part of her residency at the Kulturbunker,and included about 50 visual artists and musicians from Finland, Germany and elsewhere.

Eastern

2009-04-11T23:31:00.001+03:00

Friendly faces

2009-04-11T00:19:00.001+03:00

Spring in Berlin 1

2009-04-08T14:22:00.006+03:00

Transaciones in Sibundoy, Putumayo, Colombia

2009-04-04T13:55:00.006+03:00

Another summer is here. It's a long time since summer was here, and now it's here again. There you see. In between there's a year, but now I'm looking forward... will keep posting videos and photos again.

I just came home from Colombia, where I worked with the project Transaciones with my friend and college Juan Recaman. It was fantastic, which is an understatement. I want to go back as soon as possible.

On our Transaciones blog we will be posting videos and photos from Sibundoy vallery in Putumayo, Colombia. We also invite people to participate in the project. Primarily the locals, but anyone is welcome as long as it relates to the theme of "translation, transaction and transmission" - read more on the blog...

Summer is here

2008-05-17T19:01:00.002+03:00

Life is good. I found a new home - and a studio...

The necessity of form

2008-05-13T00:09:00.003+03:00

I thought I would start a series of artistic interventions in public space - from sculptures to.. whatever I can find. To continue the Prague theme I'll start with this monument to the writer Franz Kafka being carried by a golem like figure. The sculpture was created by a Czech artist Jaroslav Rona.

A coffee in Prague

2008-05-04T19:16:00.004+03:00

The main railway station in Prague - upstairs.

The Cubist lamppost

2008-05-03T18:39:00.002+03:00

I almost forgot: the symbol of Czeck kubism - the famous Cubist lamppost on Jungmannovo náměstí, designed by Emil Králíček.

I love cubism

2008-05-02T15:52:00.009+03:00

All architects in the world, please join and make more cubist buildings! And the rest of you: if you go to Prague, don't forget to visit The House of the Black Madonna. It's a cubist building and a museum of cubism in Prague in the Czech republic. You can buy a cubist map and go hunting for cubist buildings and dream about a beautiful cubist world. Or buy some cubist ceramics - I bought a bowl for my cubist sugar cubes.

Wooden impressions

2008-04-10T17:45:00.006+03:00

I left Kokkola behind me yesterday...

Journal of Mundane Video: S-market, Kokkola

2008-04-09T00:34:00.003+03:00

Things found in an office

2008-04-06T00:51:00.007+03:00

The city of Kokkola

2008-04-03T22:20:00.007+03:00

Right now I've landed in a town called Kokkola (Karleby) in northern Finland. Actually, I'm stranded here - for a longer time than I thought - but that's another story: Two transport boxes containing the photos that should be in my exhibition that opens tomorrow are not to be found. Today I learned that they are still in Sweden. They shouldn't. Anyway, I have to wait until next week for my works, but that's really fine, I like it here. Luckily I brought some of my works with me so I have something to show tomorrow at the opening.

Kokkola was founded 1620 and is one of the older towns in Finland. The architecture I find interesting. Big areas with old wooden residential houses are preserved, and you can see buildings representing various styles. From a book produced by the local museum I learn that during the 1800th century it was common to use revival styles (generally in Finland). New Gothic was thought to be suitable for churches, New Renaissance suited banks, New Baroque theatres and the neoclassical style museums. From the beginning of 1900 came Jugend and the Romantic Nationalism with ideals based on Carelian wooden houses and castles in Europe (!), and then Finnish Functionalism.

Tonight there is a concert with Kauko Röyhkä in a pub nearbye... I think I should go!

Save the bakeries in Helsinki

2008-03-27T22:22:00.004+02:00

A while ago a foreign woman told me she wouldn't be able to live in Helsinki because there are no bakeries there. She said every block should have a bakery, and I agree.

The sad truth is that it's hard for small bakeries to survive in Finland. A lot of bakeries have closed, and it indeed looks like everyone have to buy the same kind of bread from the same few big supermarket chains. But there are still some bakeries left, as this image proves. This bakery on Runeberginkatu in the centre has functioned in the same spot for about 100 years and they still make bread with the old methods, the shop keeper told me.

Save the bakeries, support diversity!

On the ferry

2008-03-26T22:29:00.007+02:00

Ferries like this one has always been important for me. The ferries between Finland and Sweden were important work providers for the people from the archipelago where I was born. My first boyfriend worked on a ferry, and I was travelling with him, back and forth, back and forth...;) (That ferry later became Estonia that sank in the Baltic Sea 1994, a very tragic accident that claimed many lives).
Anyway, these photos below are from a ferry between Denmark and Germany.

...and this torso turned...

2008-03-18T20:00:00.004+02:00

One more image from Malmö: The Turning Torso, which I envy so much. As I mentioned before, in Finland the torsos do not turn, at least not for the moment being.

A gig at Galleri Krets

2008-03-14T18:48:00.004+02:00

Malmö has a good reputation when it comes to contemporary art, and a lot of things seem to be going on. I saw a video/animation piece by Mikael Eriksson at Malmö Art Museum that I really liked. It was made for a moving and rotating video projector - I have never seen anything like that before!
Last sunday I was at a concert at Galleri Krets in Malmö - embarrassing enough I don't know the name of the group... but I'm sure I'll find out. The exhibition on display was by a group of artists from Glasgow: "Incredible Permanent Gains: a celebration of spam".

Malmö

2008-03-13T23:55:00.010+02:00

A volvo car, an art museum in a castle, a student house...

Opening at Galleri 21

2008-03-09T10:08:00.007+02:00

Yesterday was the opening of my exhibition in Galleri 21, Malmö, Sweden. I enjoyed it very much and a lot of people where on the move because the beautiful weather. On the image below is Göran Green, a curator and gallerist working in the field of contemporary Scandinavian art. On the last image you can see Signe, one of the visitors...

Seaview

2008-03-07T00:50:00.003+02:00

The Berlinale ended a couple of weeks ago and I never got around to blog about it because of my situation with poor internet access... My friends Paul Rowley and Nicky Gogan where in Berlin for the premier of their first documentary Seaview. It a beautiful documentary about asylum seekers living in Mosney, a former holiday camp near Dublin. More information and reviews can be found at http://stillfilmsnews.blogspot.com/ and www.stillfilms.org

Venus.Not

2008-03-03T23:53:00.010+02:00

My new digital photo & video animation projekt "VENUS.NOT" is opening next Sunday on Mars 9, 2008, 12 - 16 pm. Welcome!

Galleri 21
Rådmansgatan 5
S-211 46 Malmö
Sweden

"This project was initiated with an urge to "repair" the missing limbs in a sculpture of a female torso. By stretching and nudging the digital images, I got a new sculpture, one where the limbs never end (I imagine them to continue outside the digital print). I applied a similar technique on other photographs from images of private and public interiors. This resulted in a series of strange and futuristic spaces. The images are both extended and compressed, flattened and twisted. Traces of the digital manipulation are clearly visible, and I have left "clues" that lead back to the original images - a book shelf, a computer, or a human figure. In the "Avatar" series Classical Greek and Roman sculptures are reincarnated in new bodies. The video animation "Arkipelag" shows fragments from floating torsos resembling isles in the sea." Gun Holmström

Videoblast

2008-02-24T21:56:00.007+02:00

Pikselache arranges The Videoblast! evenings presenting Finnish VJ culture. The video performance will take place every last Wednesday of the month at m-bar. The programme is coordinated by VJ Finland with occasional contributions from Pixelache University. The images are from the event on January 30.

Another isle

2008-01-31T13:22:00.000+02:00

One of the sketches for a project I'm working on right now, based on classical Greek and Roman sculpture...

The isle of the dead

2008-01-28T11:16:00.000+02:00

'

The painting "Isle of the Dead" by Arnold Böcklin was the favourite of Hitler, Freud and Lenin...

Elephant and Castle shopping centre

2008-01-22T21:33:00.000+02:00

As a follow-up from my last posting I'm publishing some photos of the shopping centre in Elephant and Castle, Southwark, London. It's going to be torn down soon and a lot of people won't be sorry. The building is seen by many as the ugliest structure in London.

I think this is mind-blowing design. I see the archetype structure: A scary (formerly pink) fortress guarded by red mean elephants, surrounded by huge roundabouts with dangerous traffic. The quest is to find your way in a maze of subways. It's a place to get lost, and to encounter scary things around the next twist... I'm never really sure if I'm coming or going... However, when inside... well, hmm, anything can happen, I suppose...

I've heard that a documentary is being made about this place, and I can't wait to see it.

Walworth Road

2008-01-18T14:52:00.000+02:00

In my vision of paradise there is a Walworth Road in the middle, ending with the incomprehensible shopping centre in Elephant and Castle. My dear friend Minna and her family live in the neighbourhood, so here is where I stay when visiting London. It's bustling of life, and not a single art gallery in sight! There was a time where half of my wardrobe came from the charity shops in this street. And on the East Street Market they sell these delicious sea snails...

Gillian Wearing made a video here: "Homage to The Woman With a Bandaged Face Who I Saw Yesterday Down Walworth Road" where she bandaged her face and had herself videoed walking down the high street.

Trash art

2008-01-17T00:56:00.000+02:00

A piece of nice public art in the back of Royal Festival Hall: We thought someone just got rid of their Christmas decorations, but it turned out to be an installation with lights by David Bachelor.

The bottomless crack

2008-01-13T13:31:00.000+02:00

I'm a big fan of this crack after experiencing it myself. Sometimes it seems too much (for someone brought up with the Scandinavian ideal of "lagom" - the golden "middle way") that art has to cost loads of money and has to be so spectacular to catch attention. But I do think the crack is a good piece of art. I watched people walking along it (167 meter long) from the beginning to the end, photographing it standing with their feet on each side of the crack, kids hiding in it, people sitting in groups around it and interacting with the crack in one way or another...

The crack in the concrete floor of Tate Modern is a work by Colombian artist Doris Salcedo and entitled Shibboleth. Salcedo explaines that it's a statement about racism and the gap between Europeans and the rest of mankind. The crack cost £300,000 to make.

Address to a haggis

2008-01-09T01:05:00.000+02:00

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o' a grace
As lang's my arm.

(After eating haggis you can fight anyone, very useful here...)

see also The poetic problem of today (april 07)

Rest-and-be-Thankful

2008-01-05T12:40:00.001+02:00

There was one day with sunshine in Glasgow, the first for weeks, but we drove the car up in the hills and suddenly found ourselves in a blizzard. We stubbornly picknicked by the lake in Arrochar in a temperature below zero, and took a stroll around the Rest-and-be-Thankful viewpoint area in Glen Crow. The name derives from the fact that the road is so long and steep at the end that it was traditional to rest at the top, and be thankful that you had got to the highest point...

In the Kingdom of Fife

2008-01-04T01:56:00.000+02:00

On new years day, in the kingdom of Fife, we went on a stroll in the misty landscape. Near the loch we found a small forgotten church with a graveyard that nobody we asked seemed to know much about. Scotland is magical.

Video postcard: A Puzzled Santa

2007-12-29T01:42:00.000+02:00

Introduction: Santa Claus is looking for a home in Germany because the living costs are so high in Finland. Strategically placed candies are tempting him and he becomes totally confused and falls down...

Hunting shadows

2007-12-27T02:27:00.000+02:00

Need knows no season...

2007-12-23T13:25:00.000+02:00

Last Christmas I spent in Hanoi eating Finnish chrisp bread and a beer to go with it. This year in Berlin I'm better prepared: I brought with me some lutfisk (air-dried fish prepared with caustic soda or potash lye). I'm eating the fish together with with white sauce, salt, pepper and boiled potatoes. Delicious!
I wish everybody a fantastic Christmas dinner!

Death and Xmas

2007-12-21T00:45:00.000+02:00

The display in the window of this funeral service on Torstrasse is the most incredible I've ever seen... It makes me happy every time I pass it:)
They claim they're cheap as well.
The Christmas decorations "put the dot on the i" as we say in Scandinavia (it would somehow be more logical to say "the dots on the ö"... or å or ä... I wonder were this saying comes from?).

"Where earth and water meet"

2007-12-14T11:36:00.000+02:00

I've been in Finland for a week and it's been busy, busy... The days are short (4-5 hours), the shadows long... Here some photos from the little town Ekenäs.

The Photomin - a sound art work

2007-12-07T22:41:00.001+02:00

From my archive: This documentation of the Photomin at the Helsinki Kunsthall is from 2005. The interactive sound sculpture is a collaboration between me and Jari Lehtinen. It's related to the sound sculpture the Omphalomin.

Video with music dog

2007-12-04T02:18:00.001+02:00

A pink sketch for an electric drama.

DDR - Oui!

2007-12-03T01:47:00.000+02:00

The metamorphosis from DDR to "Oui". I have my forehead in deep wrinkles while trying to figure out the hidden symbolism in this one.

Homemade light therapy

2007-11-27T02:10:00.000+02:00

A friend in Helsinki, Jan-Erik, sent me a photo of his homemade light therapy system. Very impressing, and the costs where down to almost nothing. I'll try to invent one too.
Photo courtesy Emma Holmberg.

November blues in Prenzlauer Berg

2007-11-25T12:44:00.001+02:00

I had planned to go to Dessau to see Bauhaus this Sunday. I got up at 6, had a coffee and was outside my door before 7, but then I gave up. It was so cold, dark and wet that I changed my mind - I just couldn't see myself bicycling to the main train station.
The street lamps where still on. I decided to make a quick walk around the block to get some fresh air, and then go back to bed. It had snowed during the night, and the last of it was melting on the hoods of the cars. A man passed by, with not too rhythmical steps. He looked confused, stopped shortly and touched his face as to feel it was still there. I watched the plastic dolls in the Russian shop and decided I liked the mean looking rabbit the most.
Outside the Burger Café there was a small riot - apparently the party just finished for a young man who was thrown out from the club. He was screaming impressible loud, but I couldn't make out what he said. Three men came out and approached him, and the last I saw he was walking backwards away.

Associations to reading levels

2007-11-21T23:43:00.000+02:00

So now you (and I) know... I find myself thinking about "art making levels", while remembering an article written by Mika Hannula (not the Swedish ice hockey player). He convincingly stated in a Scandinavian art magazine that artists who end up working with video are less talented than others. It was published in the 90ties I think, but now I have no means of finding out... Well, at least in Finland negative and provocative statements are surprisingly often seen as an expression of honesty and a sense of realism. So, go and fuck yourself, losers, starting from Nam June Paik all the way to (for example) Eija-Liisa Ahtila.

Vaginal Davis in Cheap Blacky

2007-11-20T15:14:00.000+02:00

Cheap Blacky (regie: Bruce Labruce) is a play about "the nine stages of the death and dying of the bourgeois family." Tim Blue who I met last spring was also in the play, and I've been curious about Vaginal Davis for a while - so I went to see it last Saturday at Hebbel am Ufer. Susanne Sachsse is so charismatic...

Through the nine stages a hustler arrives and seduces everyone in the bourgeois family, after which everyone realizes how much they have repressed their feelings. This puts the family in a severe crisis which ultimately leads to a transformational stage - in this case levitation. The family members are violently annihilated. The short video clip is from the ninth stage, where the surviving character, the servant, dances on the graves of the dead.

Video postcard with fireworks

2007-11-19T20:14:00.000+02:00

A view from my window one evening in late october, looking out at fireworks near the TV-tower (Fernsehturm) at Alexanderplatz.

Pan Sonic & Keiji Haino at Volksbühne

2007-11-16T11:46:00.000+02:00

Pan Sonic is a Finnish experimental electronic music duo consisting of Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen. I know them from my time in Turku, their hometown, 20 years ago. They were based in Barcelona for many years, but now Mika lives in Berlin, and Ilpo is back in Finland, Mika told me yesterday. Pan Sonic have toured the world. They have been called for example "one of the most ground-breaking and innovating projects in contemporary electronic music".

Yesterday I was at the concert "Pan Sonic meets Keiji Haino" at Volksbühne. Hearing them live together with the visual elements (a huge rhythmic video projection) was a fantastic experience. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera, but I made a little selection of Pan Sonic videos found on YouTube.

Quicktime file (25 min) with Pan Sonic Live and an interview with Mika Vainio, written by John Whitney.
Interview by S. Arden Hill from 1999.

The invisible Music Hall in Helsinki

2007-11-14T01:23:00.000+02:00

The VR warehouses were built 1898-99. A hundred years later the red brick buildings hosted different tenants from the cultural field - for example the artist association Muu ry, or the the ecological Ruohonjuuri shop. Concerts and cultural events of all kinds were arranged, and during the warmer months there was an immensely popular flee market which I visited regularly. And I bought my bike from the "Greenbike" shop....
But the magazines looked ugly to a lot of people, and they were situated directly in front of the Finnish Parliament building! After years of intense discussions between the grass root activists, the people and the politicians, including demonstrations with up to 10 000 people, the decision was made to tear the magazines down. It was decided that a new grand Music Hall should be built there.
However, on 5th of May 2006 an accidentally started fire took care of the work, just a few days before the demolition was scheduled. Today the place looks very sad indeed, since the money to build the music hall is somehow suddenly missing.

The magazines are gone and with them a space for diverse cultural events and for people representing so called "alternative lifestyles". Does it symbolize the process of conforming the culture to more "harder" values? In Helsinki you can get jailed for painting graffiti, but at the same time commercials are allowed to take over the visual urban environment. It's never questioned, and not even discussed. Somebody pays somebody for a space to put up a commercial - in a public space, belonging to everyone really...
Last summer I wanted to put up posters for an art event but could hardly find any places where posters were allowed. It's quiet a contrast to Berlin where opinions - cultural or political - are everywhere. (Commercials are everywhere too - the biggest I've seen, even covering the churches... will get back to that).

The photos were taken last spring.

Preview of videos

2007-11-11T02:55:00.000+02:00

I've made a video portfolio on blip.tv (which offers a very good image quality I think). Click on "guide" to see the different titles or go directly to http://gunholmstrom.blip.tv/. The videos are from 2000 and forward, most of the older ones are silent and meant to be installed in a space rather than screened. More information about the works can be found at my website www.gnuh.net.

Photos from Pellinge

2007-11-07T02:58:00.000+02:00

Pellinge (Pellinki) is a small island near Porvoo about 80 km east of Helsinki. I grew up in one of the two villages, but moved away a long time ago. These photos are from a visit last May.

www.pellinge.net

The online art journal Ctr+P

2007-11-02T13:54:00.000+02:00

CTR+P is "a journal of contemporary art published digitally for easy reproduction and circulation by anyone and everyone around the world". The editor, Judy Freya Sibayan have included some images with my AsciiBesques in the latest issue nr 8.

Ain't I A Woman?

2007-10-30T23:51:00.000+02:00

I read through the famous speach "Ain't I A Woman?" by Soujourner Truth now and then and feel uplifted every time... It was delivered 1851 at Women's Convention, Akron, Ohio. Soujourner was a slave.

"Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? (member of audience whispers, "intellect") That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say."

Arl Marx

2007-10-29T19:41:00.000+02:00

Nicking cars in "The Zone"

2007-10-27T12:35:00.000+03:00

Today a bunch of people were modelling for photographer Boris Duhm. The setting was an old abandoned factory in Oranienburg in former DDR. It was a huge area. Once upon a time different plastic objects were produced there. We felt like we were in Stalker (the film by Andrei Tarkovsky). When the photo session was over, Boris noticed he had locked himself out from his car. Time for problem solving. And time for visitors...

Asciibesques

2007-10-17T00:08:00.001+03:00

Two sketches for a series of "asciibesques", a work in progress. One is inspired by ROFL, and the other one by LOL (both examples of abbrievations in the internet jargon).

To the ghetto with love

2007-10-14T11:40:00.000+03:00

Communication. Interaction. Digging in the socio-behavioural phenomena, but actually, before anything else, it's really about LOVE (and a little about Korean music).

Thanks to my friends Juan and Ju in New York: my Columbian brother and visual artist Juan Recaman, with whom I among many other things share a strong preference for collective transports (mainly buses). And thanks to lovely Ju who invented the ghetto device, likes Marimekko and the Moomins and travels from New York to Paris to direct fashion shows.

The Treptowers art collection

2007-10-10T21:14:00.001+03:00

Today I went (together with my German language school) to check out the art collection in the Treptowers. The German insurance company Allianz commissioned over hundred artist to fill up a huge futuristic office building with art. The art works consist mainly of op art and minimalist and constructivist paintings and sculptures.

It was interesting to see the relation between art-architecture-office landscape and the way the works were installed. I was particularly impressed by the "architectural spaces" created in the corridors by Felice Varini. With the help of monocrome simple geometrical figures like the circle, quadrant and ellipse he has created brilliant optical illusions. While walking through the corridor, the scenery changed with each step.

There was also a work by a Finnish artist - Matti Kujansalo (the black&white circular painting below). Other artists are for example Pip Culbert, Vera Röhm, Dora Maurer, Lars Englund, Hermann Glöckner, Carl Andre, Wladimir Stenberg, Heijo Hangen and Elworth Kelly, to mention a few.

The Treptowers building is open to visitors only once a month. I'm publishing some pics from the art mixed together with pics from the building (you will have to figure out which is which...)

Myanmar is rising - wear a red shirt 28.9

2007-09-27T23:30:00.000+03:00

I support the Burmese protesters, and I'll wear a red shirt tomorrow in support of the burmese.

Sign a petitition

Kalevala in Hanoi

2007-09-17T18:37:00.001+03:00

Due to "popular request" (I finally got to use that term) I'm publishing some photos from my Vietnam trip last year once again... It was my first time in Asia and quite an experience for me. Actually it was so interesting that I finally got rid of the last of my nicotine addiction without even noticing. Thanks again Maritta Nurmi for making the trip possible (and try to cope with the spring roll factory) together with Phuoc from the Ryllega Gallery.

There was even an article in VTC News about me, but the only words I understand are "video" (in fact a not-approved-of art technique in Vietnam) and a reference to "Kalevala" - the national epic of Finland (Beauteous Daughter of the Ether, Passed for ages her existence, In the great expanse of heaven, O'er the prairies yet enfolded...)

Reflections after closing time

2007-09-16T20:31:00.000+03:00

In Lustgarten

2007-09-13T08:55:00.000+03:00

Ireland VS Brazil - a machinima film

2007-09-09T22:27:00.000+03:00

Machinima is the art of film making within a virtual environment (like a computer game) and all the material consists of computer-generated imagery. "Ireland VS Brazil" is filmed at Tampere airport while me and a friend where passing the time by observing the physical attributes of the players in a football game machine.

Earlier I've used the computer program "the Sims" when making "Turku goes oukkidoukki" (still below).

The Museum of Mental Objects

2007-09-07T22:18:00.000+03:00

I'm very proud to have a work of art in the collection of the Museum of Mental Objects (MoMO)! And especially so because it's a museum that exists only in the body of Judy Freya Sibayan, an artist from the Philippines.

The collections are on display only during special moments. Sometimes MoMO chooses to display the collection during an organized performance, as on last Monday in Berlin (invited by Karla Sachse). The display can also happen at a bus stop while waiting for the bus, or while Judy is having an afternoon coffee with her friends at a pub in Prenzlauer Berg, for example (also the place where I installed my piece...). Artists install their art works in MoMO by whispering to it. The art collection are stored in the memory of Judy - and in the memory only.

Mental objects can of course not be seen "the normal way". The collections are revealed orally, face to face with the audience. The museum is not to be photographed or documented in any way during the performance. Likewise, the artists are not allowed to write about, or to document, their pieces in MoMO. However, just ask me, and I can tell - orally is fine! (And I think it's one of my best pieces ever, and VERY political).

Judy is the former director of the Contemporary Art Museum of the Philippines but resigned after three years ("got fired" she said). Five years after that she conceived the Scapular Gallery Nomad, where the invited artists could exhibit their works hanged on her body (and she took 30% when selling). MoMO was conceived 2002 as "a response to monolithic cumbersome museums".

Judy Sibayan is an artist, journalist, activist and a professor at the La Salle University in Manilla, and a lot of other things... Together with Flaudette May V. Datuin and visual artist Varsha Nair (who I met in Bangkok last January - thanks for taking care of me, Varsha!), Judy makes the online-magazine Ctrl+P - a journal of contemporary art which is a part of the magazines-program at Dokumenta 12.

The image of Judy is taken after the performance, when she no longer was MoMO.

Judy Freya Sibaran, see for example http://www.trauma-interrupted.org/judy/ or http://magazines.documenta.de

Varsha Nair
Womanifesto

Maybe forever

2007-09-06T00:09:00.000+03:00

The slogan on Volksbühne has changed. I like it (see previous posting.)

From a Finnish kitchenette

2007-09-03T19:07:00.000+03:00

I'm honoured to have received a response to my post about the Paula Girls from jazz musician and jazz critic J-E Holmberg. He has been kind enough to send me these photos from his new flat with the permission to publish them. I thank him dearly and welcome similar reactions in the future!

Summer in Berlin...

2007-08-31T12:19:00.001+03:00

... is ending. I've always liked the autumn most. I think it's more stylish than summer. It's easier to breathe. Going with my "new" second hand bike along Karl-Marx-Allee is just fantastic, and from next week on I'll be doing it every day when going to my German classes.

The camera as an address book

2007-08-28T23:26:00.001+03:00

Vietnamese soup video

2007-08-24T13:26:00.000+03:00

I found my favorite answering machine message in my archives, recorded in Montreal, Quebec, Canada a few years ago. Sometimes the decision lies between Vietnamese soup and Catalonian samfaina...

The answering machine that recorded the message was in the house of Juliana E Keller, my hostess with the mostess in Montreal.

Getting used to Berlin

2007-08-23T00:11:00.000+03:00

Barefoot in Vallila

2007-08-12T18:43:00.000+03:00

A group of artists and musicians gathered at the backyard of Lemuntie 6 in Vallila, Helsinki yesterday evening. A beautiful, warm night in August... and the party went on until 6 a.m. Thanks to Seppo and Mi for organizing this fantastic happening The video is a short documentation of the event.

Featured artists:
FORGETTES
BILL ALLEN & JARI HAANPERÄ
TOIMISTO BLUES
GUN HOLMSTRÖM
PEUGEOT-75
BACKSTAGE
ARJA TIAINEN
SEPPO RENVALL
ELEKTRONINEN SEURA
VERA, JANNE, TUOMO JA MI
SIMO ROIHIAINEN

Omphalomin - a public sound sculpture

2007-08-06T00:50:00.001+03:00

Going through my files I found this documentation video about my first permanent outdoor sculpture, the Omphalomin. Visual artist Clara Ursitti impersonates the famous theremin virtuosa Clara Rockmore, who was also a great inspiration for this art work.

The piece was commissioned by the Helsinki City Art Museum 2006 and placed in a park in eastern Helsinki (Rekipellonpuisto, Vesala). The sculpture is made of stainless steel and creates sound through optical sensors. My inspiration for this work was the theremin, one of the first electronic instruments (1919) and designed to be played without being touched by it's creator Léon Theremin.

I was planning to arrange a "Best Omphalomin Composition Competition", but I had some difficulties with the arrangements this year... but I do hope it will take place! The prizes will be incredible of course, so start rehearsing!

Last time I went to check on the sculpture I saw some people sitting nearby having a beer - a very common sight in that area... Anyway, I went to ask them if they knew about how much the Omphalomin is played on, but they thought I came to collect their empty bottles. So, I got no answer to my question really, they kept offering me the bottles...

The still image above shows the first prototype, which was a real theremin.

Three poems from cyberspace

2007-08-03T13:53:00.000+03:00

1.
Penis enlarge patch
Little time
Little money
But Oh! what size, my honey

2.
Babes always hee-hawed at me and even blokes did in the open bathroom!
Well, now I smil at them, because I took Me_ga. d_ik.
for 3 months and now my member is terribly longer than civil.
Virgins always laughed at me and even bucks did in the civil
comfort station!
Well, now I sriek at them, because I took Me_ga. d_ik.
for 6 months and now my pecker is badly best than national.

3.
I am not a Beauty, but I am not ugly, I am pretty.
I don't have only positive sides into my character.
I am ordinary woman, who
has both angels and devils inside.
I am passionate and romantic,
I am shy and strong.
I am a woman whom you need, because I am your destiny.

Where lilies grow...

2007-08-01T10:42:00.001+03:00

I want to thank the two great masters Ingmar Bergman (July 14, 1918 – July 30, 2007) and Michelangelo Antonioni (September 29, 1912 - July 30, 2007).

To honor the filmmakers: a concert with Aki Takase and Friends live at the Jazz Club A-Trane in Berlin (reminds me strongly of the "concert for a nameless island", see earlier posting).

Coffee culture part 2: cardboard coffee mugs

2007-07-29T00:20:00.000+03:00

A typical Finnish disposable cardboard mug is white with a thin check pattern in blue. Anything from wine to coffee is drunken out of this mug, but mostly it's used for coffee. It has looked the same at least since the 60ties, and is still extremely popular - although there are more modern versions as well. Bars, gas stations, summerhouses, parties, weddings... they can be found anywhere!

The Finns are known to be extremely practical and down-to-earth people. This far there hasn't been a reason good enough to stop the use of the disposable cardboard mugs that have served generations of Finns so well. When the hot coffee burns your fingers through the thin cardboard, it's just a healthy reminder of how harsh life can be...

Personally I wouldn't mind a more sustainable alternative - and one that doesn't pour out coffee on my trousers because the handle is unstable and easily "wrinkles". WHAT IS PAULA doing about this problem? Her coffee cup is made of gold...

The café at the airport in Tampere promises shining white Arabia porcelain cups, but alas! the reality is different, as you can see in the next image. The doughnut looks the same though (usually called a "piggy" doughnut).

From a café in the shopping center in Vuosaari. PAULA!!

Coffee culture part 1: the Paula Girls

2007-07-28T01:18:00.000+03:00

About 100 meter from my Helsinki home there is a coffee factory, Paulig. The company has marketed their products since 1950 with the help of a beautiful "Paula girl", the oldest PR-person in Finland. It's been said that the Paula kind of substitute a royal family in Finland... and that she was more popular than the ex president and autocrat Urho Kekkonen (1956–1981), who was re-elected one time after another until he simply became too dement to handle his duties (bless him).

Stilleben, Berlin series

2007-07-25T13:31:00.001+03:00

Some photos from Kassel

2007-07-21T00:18:00.000+03:00

Brigida - a text for Karl Holmqvist

2007-07-18T07:12:00.000+03:00

Yesterday I went to the unitednationsplaza to listen to Molly Nesbit talking about "photography in the 70's" with references to the library of Martha Rosler on display in the building. Perhaps I enjoyed most of all the discussion about whether bringing Martha Rosler's library to Berlin is an art project or not. Molly Nesbit thinks it's not, and some people in the audience thought it would be plain tragic to call it art. But Anthon Vidokle (who organized the unitednationsplaza in collaboration with others) says it's an art project, although he claims he doesn't know why (last time I saw him he was feeding an elephant baby in northern Thailand, by the way - after giving a talk at a sound art work shop at the Chiang Mai University). And I think it's art as well - simply because it exists within the "art context" which appears to be "more art than art" today.

There was a call for texts for a marathon reading and radio broadcast with Karl Holmqvist at the radio station WUNP 95.2 FM, and I've sent him the "internet poem" below (the source is my most recent spam email). The performance takes place on Saturday July 21, starting from 6 PM.

BRIGIDA

"Oh, don't misunderstand--" "About twenty paces tease succeed from
colourful the scaffold, where he had stood to hear cinerary the
sentence, were three posts, fi "G.L."

"Oh, not cold--believe an old mass burst man--not from a cold, but from
pig tick grief for her prince. Oh--your mother, wed shed sewed influence
"Ardalion," said Nina Alexandrovitch, entreatingly. "Ye-yes." The old
wet man tried to put knelt a fiercely good cloudy face on the affair.
"N-no! don't kiss marry him!" he wide whispered at last, produce bright
drawing his breath with an effort. "No, Ferdishenko interfere would not;
he is a candid fellow, Nastasia slap influence forward Philipovna," said
that worthy. "But the "I have lain happy here now for three days," cried
the stride young man without distribution noticing, "and I form have
seen a lot! coat "But surely misspell you do whip whirl not believe that
she..." "Good-bye," said Rogojin, pressing cheese punishment it hard,
grew jog but quite mechanically. Of course, after this, shoe Aglaya
tactic went with the made rest. squash In fact, she had never had the
slightest intention
"We thought have done without him so far," interrupted charge Adelaida
overflow in her turn. "Surely net we can wait until to-mo "That elegant
is all he statement bottle thinks mother of!" cried Lizabetha
Prokofievna. He smiled absently at wink her; weep then suddenly he felt
a burning shoe sensation succeed in his ear as an angry voice wh

"I'll ball boastfully screeching swear it by polish whatever you please."
Alexandra, who ask had seemed cost to wish to put in her word when the
prince began, dance now slippery sat silent, as thoug And, indeed, sank
there were measure no words in which he could have list expressed his
horror, yes, answer HORROR, for he wa He laughed again. "How silver do
afford you spot know he is not the question now?" cried bless Hippolyte,
laughing hysterically.
"If outstanding sleepy I had had the power to prevent my charming own
birth I should thrived certainly never have consented to accept ex "That
bomb is NOT true," smash said coach the prince, smoothly in an equally
low voice. When this plan powerful advocate had pipe sufficiently raised
the pity hook slope of Jones, by painting poor Molly in all.

Don't look back

2007-07-17T00:23:00.000+03:00

So, I'm enjoying my new home in Berlin very much , except for today with a temperature of 40 C. Far too much for a Finn! The Volksbühne nearby is being renovated, and the slogan that once was "Die Kunst dem Volke" is now "Don't look back". But thanks to the library my dear landlady left me I feel safely connected to the history.

Artist accused of "bioterrorism"

2007-07-14T12:23:00.000+03:00

Steve Kurtz (USA) is a part of the artist collective Critical Art Ensemble (CAE). In March 2007 he gave a lecture at the Kiasma Art Museum. His story about the fact that he is facing possible 20 years in prison was simply chocking and sounded completely absurd (although told with such exquisite humor that I was at times rolling of laughter at my bench). His case raises fundamental questions about freedom of speech, freedom of expression and academic freedom.

On May 11, 2004, Steve Kurtz found out that his wife of 20 years, Hope, had died of heart failure in their home in Buffalo. He phoned 911, the police came and freaked out when they saw the art materials in his home. These consisted of his (completely legal) internet purchase of bacteria for an art project, as well as scientific equipment for testing genetically altered food that had already been exhibited in several art museums by CAE. FBI arrived and "detained" Kurtz as a suspected bioterrorist. His cat, car, computers, manuscripts, books, equipment, and even his wife's body was seized for further analysis. Another reason they suspected Kurtz of being a terrorist was that they found an invitation to an art exhibition decorated with writing in Arabic in his house.

I recommend reading more about his case at http://www.caedefensefund.org/

I also recommend the documentary film Strange Culture (2007) by Lynn Hershman Leeson, and the film Marching Plague (2006) by the Critical Art Ensemble (a critique of UK-US bioweapons research).

Overcoming obstructions at Documenta 12

2007-07-13T00:50:00.000+03:00

Images: exhibition guard at Documenta 12 in Kassel...

My favorite was a film titled “Them” (2007) by Artur Žmijewski shown at the Kulturzentrum Schlachthof. Four groups of Polish activists painted their most precious symbols on a big paper: The older ladies paint a church, the right-wing nationalists draw the sword with a national flag, the Jews paint "Poland" written in Hebrew, the leftists the word "Freedom". When finished, all groups are allowed to change the content in the images the other groups have done (a kind of exquisite corpse method). The socialists start by cutting out the sword of the nationalists. The nationalists take their revenge by covering the word “freedom” with paint, which makes the socialists furious (how can you paint over "freedom"?). Soon every detail of the four images is destroyed in some way, while the participants are trembling with anger and shouting to each other. The church ladies scream about tolerance. The participants end up cutting up each other's T-shirts and setting the 'works of the enemy' on fire... This film should be a part of the curriculum at the primary schools!

Some years ago (when I had a hard time with myself once again) I tried feeding “overcoming obstructions” to the search robot and encountered the concept of Le parkour (free-running). It’s like graffiti made of a moving body… These young men were performing outside Neue Pavilion at the 12th Documenta in Kassel. Nice!

The torso that doesn't turn

2007-07-05T08:16:00.001+03:00

Cirrus in Vuosaari is the tallest building in Finland with a height of 92 meters. Sweden has their turning torso, but in Finland they just don't do it! This building was meant to be a little bit more interesting, but harsh reality cut in once again. A high pile of aluminum, concrete, glass sticks up from the woods when seen from a distance... Yesterday my neighbor and I agreed, however, that it looks really beautiful when there's a thick fog...

Today I'll pass it on my way to Kassel and Berlin...

Concert for a nameless island

2007-06-25T01:46:00.000+03:00

Timo Kaukolampi, Tuomo Puranen and Mi Duncker perform in a spontaneous midsummer concert for a nameless island. Camera&edit Gun Holmström... Filmed in the archipelago of southern Finland (Ingå).

When the sun stands still

2007-06-21T10:41:00.000+03:00

Today is summer solstice. It's a magical day... The sun hardly disappears at night. For me the year is a circle, and midsummer is furthest down. The icebreakers, Kontio and Sisu, wait impatiently for the snow and ice to come. They don't care about darkness and cold as long as they get to show their power...

I had a coffee and an Åland pancake at the stairs of the Helsinki Cathedral and pretended with my friend that it was our first day off this summer. The pancake was delicious!

Have a nice Midsummer!

Shopping wartime postcards

2007-06-18T22:23:00.001+03:00

An old bookstore in Kruunuhaka in Helsinki is about to close down for good, but I managed to rescue some original wartime postcards. I found out about some of the artists, but not about all. (If there are Finns out there who know more, please let me know:)

Postcards from 1945 with a logo of a sports union. The postcards are made by Ola Fogelberg (1894-1952), who is the creator of one of the most popular Finnish comic heroes, Pekka Puupää (eng. Peter Blockhead). He was also a pioneer in animation technics, which he learned about when visiting USA in 1927. The first postcard shows a new year ritual for predicting the future year to come. A piece of tin is heated until it melts. Then it's poured into cold water where it gets a random shape. The tin is then interpreted by looking at its shadow, as well as at some details on the tin figure... I've done it loads of times! (Is this common only in Finland? I don't really know.)

These postcards I really like: Honor work, it says... The lady in the bookstore thought that the name of the artist is Salonen, but I haven't been able to find out more. They are equipped with a logo of the wartime organization Suomen siviili- ja asevelvollisuusinvaliidien liitto r.y.

These are signed H Aarnio, U Aarnio or something similar. It sure looks like the lady is expecting good news! However, I doubt very much that women wore high heels and nylon tights. They wouldn't have lasted long when they did the farmwork or were working in the factories...

A lot of work but still some play... The artist Emil Cedercreutz (1879-1949) is well known for his silhouettes and one of the first who introduced everyday subjects in Finnish sculpture. He was a strong supporter of the "simple life and good deeds"- philosophy of Leo Tolstoy, the famous Russian writer, pacifist and spiritual anarchist.

Live web cam - a moose in my window

2007-06-11T18:17:00.001+03:00

The newest addition to this blog is this live web cam... wanted to test it out... Again honoring Papa Paik, however I chose a moose instead of a Buddha, it seems more at home here... If you watch patiently you can see my neighbors pass...

I don't know how long I will keep this though. A moose today, something else tomorrow, perhaps. The excitement is growing. When I'm asleep the web cam will be asleep as well.

Hymn to the Helsinki metro

2007-06-09T01:18:00.001+03:00

Wilderness in the city

2007-06-07T10:36:00.000+03:00

In the middle of the industrial area in Vallila there is a park that Helsinki City forgot about a long time ago. It's been primarily used as a wast dump and a hideaway for the local alkies. This spring a group of students from the art school Maa decided to clean it up, and after a lot of hard work it became an interesting city space suitable for all kind of outdoor art happenings. Yesterday there was a barbecue with people from the media art organizations Pixelache and Katastro.fi. And if I got it right, anyone with a good idea can arrange a happening here... just contact some of the students. They've built a fireplace, some basic shelter and a small stage.

Rolling on planet earth

2007-06-05T22:38:00.000+03:00

It's a pleasure to present my very dear friends, the anonymous aliens, or Group A2. They say they want to exhibit visual and aural stimulus, causes and effects from travels in our world, and other worlds which we do not understand. All this with a sincere interest in "transgressing".

See Rolling on Planet Earth for some fantastic posters and other alien artefacts.

Stop the building, it's not square

2007-06-01T16:07:00.000+03:00

Something that looks like an oversized blue mushroom is standing between blossoming apple trees in Hirvensalo in Turku, Finland. The object is called Life on a Leaf - a combined house- and art project by visual artist Jan-Erik Andersson in collaboration with architect Erkki Pitkäranta. It's going to be the future home for him and his family, despite of the prominent architects who cry: "Stop him! Somebody has to stop him! It's not possible to live like that!"

But Jan-Erik "puts the funk into functionalism", while struggling his way through bureaucracy and a tightly controlling architectural climate. Who says we have to live in boxes? He admits at this point, however, that a box is usually cheaper. In the leaf house almost everything is handmade. Square is cheap, how come? There are no square rocks in nature...

Life on a Leaf is a part of Jan-Erik's PhD studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. A week ago I attended a contextualizing seminar "Iconic Building" arranged by Jan-Erik. International architects working with a similar philosophy (for example from Ushida Findlay, UK and Jersey Devil Architecture, USA) presented their imaginative house projects. Also presenting were artists who are participating with their own separate art projects inside and outside the building, like Shawn Decker (USA) and Trudy Entwistle (UK).

A group of Finnish artists including me and Jan-Erik where in Chicago for a group exhibition about ten years ago. Jan-Erik was the most entertaining source of knowledge about contemporary architecture and I learned loads! We celebrated his birthday with a barbecue in the garden of his friend the sound artist Shawn Decker. Jan-Erik got the present he had dreamt about for years: An air guitar, wrapped in the most beautiful way we could manage. I hope he still has it, and that it will find a place in his new home...

Mental-me video documentation

2007-05-28T08:45:00.000+03:00

From the performance last Thursday (see previous posting). I tried to record the session using my VJ program, but it turned out afterwards that the files where corrupt. Here you can see some reconstructed mixing samples and footage from the documentation of our session in the gallery.

Performance with a Photomin

2007-05-26T12:14:00.003+03:00

The performance "Mental-me" at the Sinne Gallery last Thursday consisted of Mi Duncker as the most exquisite photominist and me streaming and mixing moving images live in my green VJ sunglasses. The visual material consisted mostly of short clips from the famous footage of the late Russian psychic Nina Kulagina. In the films she seems to be moving compass needles and lights objects with her mind. This is called psychokinesis (from Greek: psyche, soul + kinesis, motion) - the apparent ability to influence physical objects or events by thought processes.

The Photomin is an interactive sound sculpture I made 2005 with Jari Lehtinen. It is equipped with light sensors and a melody generator. We also used a webcam placed above the photomin that filmed the hands of the player moving on the sound sculpture.

"Mental "- invitation to the opening May 24

2007-05-19T00:35:00.001+03:00

Next Thursday, on May 24, we have an opening in Helsinki. Participating artists are Ingrid Ung (who curated and organized this project), Gun Holmström, Lena Seraphin, Miyako Narita from Japan and Amy Cheung from Hongkong (who you can also see at the Venice Biennale this year).

I have promised to give an opening performance together with Mi Duncker, me "VJ-ing" (for the first time) or streaming "mental" images, she is supposed to play my sound sculpture, the Photomin (that you can see on the image) and perhaps a shaman drum...

You are welcome to join us at the Sinne Gallery on Yrjönkatu 23 between 17-19!

A cinematic essay about an Estonian cake

2007-05-14T14:44:00.000+03:00

My friend and colleague Ingrid explains how to make an Estonian cake - the "kokopiimäkokki" (I wonder if that's really the name, I think she made it up...). I'll dedicate this video to Jonas Mekas, whose "cinematic essays" I'm watching at the moment (some free downloads from his site - great!). I missed him when he was in Finland earlier this spring, at the Tampere Film Festival, but I saw his exhibition The Beauty of Friends Being Together Quartet at PS1 in NY. I loved it.

The Cinematic Essay: The Cine What? by Robert Thompson contains a lot of reference for this documentary film genre. This non-plot non-unity attitude I've used a lot as a video artist, and I think it's nice to hear the term "cinematic essay" instead of the dull "home-video style" as opposed to "real filmmaking".

And by the way, from Mekas' website I learned that The City Council of Vilnius in Lithuania has established the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center which will exhibit collections by Jonas Mekas and George Maciunas. Now Vilnius has (at least) two especially interesting cultural attractions, the first being the Frank Zappa statue (I actually contributed to the statue moneywise, because I happened to be at a fundraising jazz party in Vilnius at that time. I'm proud).

Ingrid Ung is an artist exploring the state of transsexualism.

Eurovision in Helsinki

2007-05-13T12:15:00.000+03:00

I went to the Moscow bar yesterday, and met these Norwegian gentlemen who claimed they had been thrown out from the Eurovision song contest... They were a lot of fun. And I have a headache.