Mary Sibande - I'm a lady

Mary Sibande is one of South Africa’s most talented young artists. For several years, her body of work has nearly exclusively revolved around Sophie, a servant character created from her personal genealogy (her mother, grandmother and great grandmother were maids). Sophie’s dark silky skin, her majestic eye-catching blue Victorian dresses are turning her into a queen whose eyes close on reality (but so little, as only artists can do) to open on a world of  celebrational fantasy exploring South Africa’s identity. Mary Sibande is not only a fine storyteller, she also embodies the African woman of our times: assertive, articulate, artistically ambitious and engaged in a life bursting with energy and desire for reinforcing democracy and equality in her country. A go-getter. We met in Helsinki to the occasion of the must-see exhibition Ars11 at Kiasma and in Venice at the inauguration of the South African pavillon.

Mary Sibande - Wish you were here

- Dressing Sophie is a very long process (from conception to performance/installation/photography) that is also challenging from a technical point of view as you transform a maid’s dress into a gigantic Victorian one… Are you Sophie’s fashion designer?

- When I was in high school, I wanted to be a fashion designer – every girl wants to be a fashion designer! - but I did not manage to enter the Fashion school because of a deadline issue. I settled to Fine Arts and do not regret it but I felt the need to return to my first love which is fashion. I somehow tied in the fashion world and the Fine Arts world.

The reason why Sophie’s dresses are big is because I was interested in the Victorian era. When you look at images of Victorian dresses, you realize that women have had it hard to wear such big, heavy and tightened-up dresses and that their movements were limited as a consequence. I constructed Sophie’s clothing with that “limited movement” concept in mind. Sophie goes to work in her ordinary dress. If she were wearing such big and heavy Victorian dress, she wouldn’t be able to do anything. Her dress is a protest against been a maid and at the same time the surface allowing her fantasies to come to life.

Mary Sibande - Silent Symphony

As for the technical side of sewing the dresses, I have now a very talented assistant to help me making them… accusting and then been in front of the sewing machine it was too much… I would go crazy if I had to do them all by myself! I am also surrounded by a great make-up artist and a talented photographer.

Mary Sibande - They don't make them like they used to

- Who/what came first, Sophie or the dress? 

- I think it was Sophie first and I had later to dress her. Sophie relates to my childhood. I once said that I grew up poor but I had everything that I needed. As a typical young girl, I had dolls and I was making clothes for my dolls. It feels like I am doing the same thing now at giant scale to life size dolls.

- Why Sophie?

- My work is influenced by the women in my family who were all maids. My grandmother told me the story of my great grandmother who had two African names but her masters couldn’t remember them. So they gave her a Christian name: they called her Elsie. I took this story.

- Yinka Shonibare uses African textiles to stage traditional Victorian scenes with the objective to denounce colonialism and post-colonialism… has he influenced your work?

I like his work a lot: how he uses textile, how he designs the dresses and how he questions the Victorian era. We are related by our use of textiles but I work with different fabrics.

Yinka Shonibare- The Confession (installation)

Mine are inspired by the Zionist churches in South Africa (author’s note: a mixture of Western religion and African beliefs in ancestors): I used their distinctive blue fabrics for the dresses but took a different pattern. I like them: they call themselves the “Soldiers of God” and you should see them when they go to church, they put on their starchy clothes… That’s fashion! Why do you need a garment to go to church? That’s also my next venue, actually, I have already started: I venture into religion and uniform and textiles and the link in-between. That’s how I constructed Sophie.

Mary Sibande's Sophie character on Jo'Burg walls

- During the FIFA World Championship, giant posters of your “Sophie” work were covering Johannesburg walls. How were these images perceived? Did your message of celebration and getting over the post-colonial past  go through?

- The advertisement agency “Art at work” got this idea to exhibit Sophie photo’s without any text, pure visuals on the walls of Johannesburg (author’s note: on the walls of 19 buildings in Johannesburg within the frame of a project called “Joburg Art City”). The project went on for six months in most of the spaces. Initially, people thought of the campaign in terms of “what does it sell”? Eventually, I got a five minutes interview on a local TV and explained the story of my character. The interview started to run in loops and people made the connection between what they saw in the city and what they saw on TV.

- Your character Sophie also tells the story of the evolution of the position of the black woman in the South African society…

- A lot of people got the idea that Sophie is a strong woman… My work is not about complaining about apartheid, or an invitation to feel sorry for me because I am black and my mothers were maids. It is about celebrating what we are as women in South Africa today and for us to celebrate, we need to go back, to see what are we celebrating. To celebrate, I needed to bring this maid.

There is a lot of Western influence in the definition of today’s South African woman: they are ”vuka uzenzele” meaning wake-up and do-it-yourself type of persons, go-getters. We are a young democracy, we are the “born free’s”. In my generation, a lot of women get an education and they are career focused. For example, I am twenty-nine now and I am building my life, by comparison, my mother had me when she was twenty.

Mary Sibande - I decline. I refuse to recline

I ’m really proud of being South African today – we all are. My ancestors might have had it hard during the apartheid era because they were “double colonized” – because of their colour AND their gender. Now lots of companies empower women and many women are CEO’s, we have a woman vice president… RSA is generating its own inspirational female model starting from the fact that the only heroes we have are our mothers that worked as maids. Higher education for black people used to be restricted to becoming a nurse or teacher, it’s changed now. Besides, there was an architecture of apartheid that was designed for people to rely on the white men for everything. From that point of view things have changed too and one does not ask the white men for a job anymore, that’s simply not the mentality anymore.

Mary Sibande - Her Majesty, Queen Sophie

- My reality-check of your assertion on the improvement of gender equality is quite personal: does your boyfriend easily accept your success?

- My boyfriend is a very successful artist himself: he won numerous awards and for two years now, he has been a teacher. He is hungry for that dream I am hungry for. There is no ego in the house because ego’s can break love and we love each other. Maybe to get a new drive, I’ll go teaching and then come back again, as he does. It is nice to move away sometimes, nice to move away from the centre of the scene.

- What about artists communities in South Africa? One could easily imagine there is an effervescent artistic life over there… but is it sustainable to be an artist in South Africa and do artists have a voice?

- Artists are recognized as artists: there is a stage, there is a voice for artists to do whatever they want to do. There are many foreigners – mainly Germans – joining us. However, there is a difference between South African and German artists: if you want to be an artist in South Africa, you have to sustain yourself, the state will not help. For example, as already mentioned, my boyfriend is sustaining his art by working as a teacher.

- After your exhibition in Helsinki (Ars11 at Kiasma), your next big event is your official participation to Venice Biennale (South African pavillon).

I am presenting an extension on my work about Sophie and I am moving away from her slowly. I am introducing an absent masculine.  It’s an autobiography… my father will be Sophie, he will have breasts. My parents separated when I was two years old and I was surrounded by the mother’s side of the family. How to include him, how to introduce him? He is in the army so I worked on developing an army of Sophie’s… (silence) I am a storyteller above all.

Mary Sibande - Lovers in tango (detail)

- You also have a couple of prestigious artist residencies ahead of you. How do they nurture your work? 

I have a residence at the Ranieri foundation and a Smithsonian fellowship. During my residencies, I gather information about RSA and look at the country from another angle. My show at Momo Gallery was conceived in NY where I had all means to gather the material and info I needed about RSA. Back home, I start working.

Ars 11 at Kiasma (Helsinki) and the Venice Biennale conconmittantly close their doors on Mary’s work.  Sophie is still alive but in Venice soldiers are pointing with imaginary arms at her (“Lovers in Tango”), she is a sooner or later called to die queen bee wearing a beehive like dress (“..and Prosperity”)… little signs that Sophie is approaching to her end… What will come next? Mary Sibande has surely many more stories to tell…

* This interview has been edited – author: Ruxandra Balboa-Pöysti

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Mary Sibande - Caught in the Rapture

TO KNOW MORE ABOUT MARY SIBANDE’S WORK

Gallery Momo: http://www.momogallery.com

Another interview: http://corrigall.blogspot.com/2010/07/interview-with-mary-sibande.html

Joburg Art City: http://www.artatwork.co.za/ and more specifically: http://www.artatwork.co.za/web/experience/special-projects/item/128-joburg-art-city-with-mary-sibande-and-the-dead-queen

Her influences: http://www.yinkashonibarembe.com/

Her current events: http://www.labiennale.org/en/art/exhibition/first-time/south-africa.html

and http://www.kiasma.fi

Ilona Pelli's Moleskine sketch notebook

I arrived in Helsinki from Brussels/Paris more than ten years ago, the mind full of Belgian/Parisian fashion. At the time, there were very few boutiques in the Finnish capital where I

Ilona Pelli Sali "tunique" 10th anniversary this year

could find wow factor clothes or accessories but for one exception: Ilona Pelli’s. The pureness of her cuts and colours, her branded asymmetrical treatment of volumes and her modular approach using her clothes’ tails to reinvent them according to her fans’ taste all caught my eye – and they still do. Ilona Pelli’s real signature is however in the absolute comfort and pleasure of wearing her clothes – and this is no edvertisement!  It is thus a privilege for me to discuss her iconic fashion work in the context of the emergence of Finnish design on the international scene – with the venue of Helsinki as World Design capital 2012 (http://wdchelsinki2012.fi/en) – and the celebration of the 10th anniversary of her mythical “Sali model” – that sold during years on Fifth Avenue.

Ilona Pelli - Drama tunique, 2011

ASYMMETRIES AND DRAPES

Ilona Pelli - Asola tunique (with wing), 2011

You launched your collection in 1995 coming from the interior design world. What was your motivation?

In 1995, Finland was hit by a serious economical downturn and getting interior design contracts was more difficult than it used to be. I had always dreamt of designing clothes and was designing as a freelancer for various brands already -(author’s note: among others worldwide distributed Marimekko). I felt it was the moment to launch my own collection.

Your treatment of volumes and asymmetries makes your clothes immediately recognizable. Do you design your collections starting from an idea for a model in the form of sketches or do you start from materials?

ILONA PELLI - HELLAS top, BORBORI trousers, 2011

My work always starts with the choice of materials. I look for good quality textiles (generally from Germany or Italy and sometimes from Finland too) and I need to touch them, feel them, be touched by their texture and colours to start figuring out the models I could derive from them. There are two equally important requirements on the top of my falling in love with them: these materials should be comfortable to wear and easy to take care of. It is essential for me that the women wearing my clothes feel not only beautified by them but also simply enjoy their comfort.

I have to admit however that the current economic downturn has complicated this initial design process in that textile providers do not necessarily produce everything on their catalogue anymore or do not sell quantities consistent with the sales of an independent designer – they rather prefer big quantity sales to fashion industrialists. Designing a full collection each season therefore demands a lot of adaptation as some models have to be redesigned based on other materials than the initial ones.

This year’s collection was inspired by Ancient Greece and Rome and their drapes…

I really enjoyed working with drapes: they make asymmetry easy and even light to wear. From the designing point of view, I loved playing with the fluidity of some materials in drapes, as well as the challenge of those presenting more of a resistance to the folding and falling process.

Ilona Pelli - Arto bolero, Malo top, Hellas skirt, spring-summer 2011

If had to summarize Ilona’s work with two words they will be: simplicity and…sophistication.Let me pick up two items from her spring-summer and revisited in  her autumn-winter collection to illustrate my purpose. A simple bolero with inspiration (Arto model) and an elegant tunique inspired by the Antique Roman toga. Simple cuts, plain colours, asymmetries

Ilona Pelli: how to use dress tails and folds

with a purpose, and these little touches of infinite elegance, we French people at times also call sophistication.

THE LITTLE BLACK DRESS (LBD)AND THE GREAT WHITE SHIRT (GWS): ILONA’S VARIATIONS ON THE “INDISPENSABLES” 

ILONA PELLI, LIRO dress, 2011

Every women should have a little black dress (LBD) and a great white shirt (GWS) as part of her wardrobe. In French, we call them the “indispensables”, ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY items of your wardrobe. Why? Because, properly accessorized, those two basics can transport you from the formal to the casual chic in one movement.

Ilona’s “little black dresses”  are by definition “elegant, longlasting,

Great white shirt by Ilona Pelli

versatile, affordable, accessible and as simple as possible” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_black_dress). Even more so when they are “modular” meaning that the dress folds into various equally wearable models according to your moods, age or taste.

“I like dresses to have adjustable folds or tails that you can knot in many ways so that each woman can stress her femininity in own way. The model remains the same but it adapts better to each woman wearing my clothes”.

ILONA + MARKKU = ART&LOVE FOREVER 

ILONA PELLI kimono jacket with Markku Susimäki prints

A few years ago, I entered into Ilona’s boutique and bumped into her late husband, artist and sculptor Markku Susimäki: he was bringing some lengths of veil with own prints to display in Ilona’ s boutique. I became fascinated by the contrast of their works – and even more by the depth of their relationship. Markku told me: “Ilona works with black and pure forms and I work with vivid colours and curves”. It struck me how the juxtaposition of their works could create harmony from opposites. After a few exhibitions marked by an exhilarating combination of their art and love, many of Markku Susimäki’s works are nowadays on display in Ilona’s design district shop .

“I miss my husband dearly and I am planning to use some of his most colourful prints in the fabrics of my upcoming collection. I have always privileged plain colours and used black extensively – mainly because of the demand for dark colours in Scandinavian countries. People tend to forget the models I created in flashy pink, cherry red, ultramarine blue, etc.”

STARTING&RESUMING WITH MATERIALS

ILONA PELLI checking her materials catalogue

No fashion collection without the grande finale: the bridal dress. Ilona Pelli creates those – and other

ILONA PELLI material catalogue

special occasion clothes – on demand only. “I first meet the client and then from the discussion I start sketching. As I mentioned, I usually like to start from materials. Depending on the model, it can even take several weeks to implement a design after the initial meeting”.

Fashionable summary in French:

Lorsque je suis arrivée de Bruxelles/Paris à Helsinki, j’ai immédiatement flashé sur les modèles d’Ilona Pelli: coupes asymétriques, couleurs pures, pans modulables, il n’y avait rien de plus scandinave dans mon esprit – et cette appréciation est encore valable aujourd’hui. Ses vêtements ont une qualité rare: ils sont conçus pour être portés avec ce sentiment mélangeant le confort à une volupté très féminine de se sentir habillée en toute simplicité avec… une petite touche de sophistication.

Inspiration antique pour la collection printemps-été et automne-hiver 2011: “les drapés allègent mes modèles qui restent essentiellement construits sur des asymétries et les rendent plus agréables à porter” 

Ilona Pelli: utilisation des pans de robe et de chemise pour moduler les vêtements

L’amour naît souvent de contrastes et se nourrit de complémentarités. A l’évidence les palettes d’Ilona Pelli et de feu son mari Markku Susimäki sont en opposition: les formes épurées de l’une répondant aux courbes fantaisistes de l’autre, couleurs unies et le plus souvent sobres d’Ilona tempèrent le délire de couleurs de Markku. De nombreuses oeuvres de Markku sont visibles dans la boutique d’Ilona poursuivant un dialogue amoureux d’une rare intensité dans le monde des arts et du design. « Nous sommes l’un à l’autre / comme des étoiles très lointaines / Qui s’envoient leur lumière… / Vous en souvenez-vous ? / Mon cœur allait / de porte en porte / comme un mendiant / Et vous m’avez fait l’aumône / qui m’enrichit à jamais. »

Text by Ruxandra Balboa-Pöysti, English text review: Diana Kaley

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Ghostlike pictures of Ilona Pelli's August 2011 fashion show

TO KNOW MORE ABOUT ILONA PELLI

www.ilonapelli.com

on Facebook: Ilona Pelli collection

TO SEE MORE MODELS FROM HER SPRING-SUMMER AND AUTUMN-WINTER 2011 COLLECTION

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49478590@N04/sets/72157626259111255/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49478590@N04/sets/72157627352472843/

We met at Hagelstam, a prestigious auction house in Helsinki,  just before the summer to review her three books: “Eräänä päivänä tyhjä taivas” (Teos, 2008), “En tunne sinua vierelläni” (Teos, 2010) and “Koiraksi ihmisille” (Teos, 2011).

Tiina Raevaara

- How did the scientist specialized in genetics turn into a writer?

- Where should I begin…? I have always painted, played music and read a lot. Besides, I have always wanted to write but I was lacking time… Then in 2003 I went  on a maternity leave from my biology researcher job, and I finally got some time – so to say (smiles) – to explore writing. While my baby was sleeping, I managed to write a few hours per day. Starting this process triggered the need to write always more. I couldn’t get enough of it, I then took the decision to quit my researcher job and devote my time to writing.

- Your surrealistic short novels, as well as your first novel, suggest you might have renounced scientific rationality when turning to artistry…

No!!!! And my most recent book “Koiraksi ihmisille” (About dogs and humans) on the evolution of dogs throughout history from a scientific point of view demonstrates it, I hope! I think have both a scientific and more literary approach to writing.

Tiina Raevaara "Eräänä päiväna tyhjä taivas" (One day, an empty sky) cover

- Your editor at Teos said: “when we got the manuscript of “Eräänä päivänä tyhjä taivas” (One day, an empty sky, 2008), we knew we had something never written before. We were enchanted with the language, the imagery”.  The choice of a publisher is one of the most important decisions for an author.  Why did you choose Teos and how do you work together?

- I sent my first manuscript to two editing houses. After an initial start with the first, I started to work with Teos because I felt more comfortable with their more cadenced working pace and because we built a closeness around my text. Maarit Halmesarka, my editor, was my first reader and her questions around my first book also helped me craft some of my characters better.

- What’s your first novel about ?

It is the story of a girl who survives in a situation where the world has been destroyed by a cataclysmic event. This survivor remembers that the world in which she is now living used to be different. She returns to the place where she was born, a forest that was miraculously preserved, to look for her family but instead of a family, she finds a cruel father and 19 brothers. She then tries to understand the mystery behind this father and her biological and non-biological brothers as well as the disappearance of her mother.

- The cataclysmic event in your novel could be a wide scale nuclear catastrophe. Dystopias, and your first novel is one, often bear a warning about the societies in which we live. Do you as a writer warn about a specific danger?

There is no specific warning in my books even if they are dystopias! I prefer to consider my texts at the symbolical and surrealistic level.

Tiina Raevaara "En tunne sinua vierelläni" ("I don't feel you beside me") cover

- Your second book “En tunne sinua vierelläni” (I don’t feel you beside me, 2010) is a collection of short novels each marked by a phantasmagoric character of its own. One of them, “My creator, my creation” (available in English – http://www.booksfromfinland.fi/2010/05/my-creator-my-creation/) is about a woman robot and her relation with a male human being, her “creator”. Gradually, the robot realizes that she starts developing a mind of her own while the human character seems to loose its human features. Do we live in such a chauvinistic world?

- The world can be very chauvinistic. Achieving a project dear to their heart for women, especially for women artists, is a real challenge! Not only are obstacles popping up when they seek to implement their projects, but they rarely get recognition for their achievements.

- This year, you were awarded the Runeberg prize for your second book. That’s a highly valued recognition… what has it changed in your life?

- The Runeberg prize is the licence to keep on writing in terms of recognition but also financially. Besides, it eases the process of selling my short novels abroad.

Venny Soldan-Brofeldt "Self- portrait" at Hagelstam's auction

- We are here at Hagelstam’s surrounded by wonderful paintings. One of them is the self-portrait of a Finnish woman painter, Venny Soldan-Brofeldt representing herself as a mother – that she was not. It reminds me of the motherly character getting out of a well in “Kaivo” (The Well)…

- This novel describes how an abstract painting comes to life: if we look closer at a painting and for sufficient time, we might see its elements come to life… maybe…

- I think you have planned to indulge us with the reading of the “Gordonin tarina” (Gordon’s story) one of your most fascinating novels with, in my opinion, quite clear references to René Magritte’s universe. In a world at war controlled by birds, Gordon is a wounded man lying in a hospital bed. His disease slowly turns him into a man of stone. The story is told from the perspective of a bird working in the hospital…

“Gordonin tarina” podcast

Tiina Raevaara's "Gordon's story". An illustration by Lorella Mastropasqua

- You speak quickly and also write quickly: it took you only one year to write a scientific book about the relationship between dogs and humans, a topic you researched during years. Where do dogs originate from?

- In Europe, they appeared 30 000 years ago. Dogs have developed from wolves in different parts of the world though. The dogs as we know them today appeared 15 000 BC in the Middle East. They evolved from wolves.

- What has been the impact of domestication on dogs?

Tiina Raevaara, "Koiraksi ihmiselle"(2011, About dogs and humans) cover - "English greyhound" drawing by Albrecht Dürer (1500-1501)

The most important change is that unlike wolves, dogs gave up their fear of humans. Dogs are rather like wolf puppies that interact with humans without any fear. There is an interesting experiment in this respect: some Russian scientists tried to domesticate foxes by selecting those puppies that were not afraid of humans. After a few years, these foxes started to look dog-like with their ears going downwards and spots in their fur. They were whisking their tails like dogs and were obeying to human gestures (directional indications). Chimps, wolves can’t do that.

- With your book on dogs I discovered that by studying dog genes we could learn a lot about our own diseases. 

- Dogs have similar health problems to humans: diabetes, heart diseases, etc. It is easier to study canine genes than studying human ones. A lot of research is therefore done on dogs trying to find cures for human diseases.

- Dogs have changed genetically over time. We have changed too… but has their peculiar relationship changed?

The relationship has not changed a lot… and it has not changed the human beings. There is a theory that the sense of smell has been left to dogs and that the facial structure of humans has developed into one where smelling is less important. Forced breeding has made them ill however.

Interview: Ruxandra Balboa-Pöysti – text review: Diana Kaley

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IN YOUR AGENDA’S

Other books by writers from the Teos stall for you to read this autumn:

http://www.teos.fi/fi/media/index.php?sub=2&id=396

Marko Lempinen “Matti Hagman.Stadin Kingi” (release in September 2011)

Annika Luther “Kodittomien kaupunki” (release in August) (translated from Swedish version “De hemlösas stad” Söderströms, 2011)

A.S.Byatt “Lasten kirja” (translated from English “The Children’s book”), release in August 2011

Raija Oranen “Nimeltään Kekkonen”, release in August 2011

Advised surrealistic visits around Magritte’s world:

http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/exhibitions/renemagritte/default.shtm

Magritte museum in Brussels:

http://www.musee-magritte-museum.be/

Dog stories from the other side of the Atlantic: “the dogs in the trees” by Matthew Battles

http://redlemona.de/matthew-battles/the-sovereignties-of-invention/the-dogs-in-the-trees-0

Kaija Poijula - "Fortuna" (2010)

Kaija Poijula - "Sleeping beauties" (2008)

Kaija Poijula’s is one of those artists whose work causes an instantaneous poetical collision. When I bumped into her “Fortuna” one year ago – and later into “Sleeping beauties” at the Helsinki design museum, I really got fascinated by her virtuoso use of airy and frail dandelions trapped in an elaborate glass and polished wooden structure. Time just vanished leaving room for a profound moment of contemplation and poetic resonance. My real artistic shock with Kaija’s work came with “Angels’ swings”  an installation that was exhibited in parks around the world between 1997 and 2005 and featuring swings (and little bells) high up on the branches of majestic trees and dedicated to all those we lost. We are meeting in front of  one of her latest installations “Little Buddha”.

Kaija Poijula - Angels' Swings

- To me,” Angels’ Swings” is one of the pivotal pieces of your art work: it uses key elements of your artistic vocabulary (swings, bells, trees) and explores an elegiac perception of instant and eternity. What was its genesis? One or two years before I created “Angels’ Swings”, two good friends of mine died. I attended their funerals and felt a lot of grief which I also linked to the death of my father when was a teen. I started to wear their mourning and exclusively dress in black – which I still do today (smiles). I however did not want to express grievance about their loss but rather remember how lovely and cheerful they were and I don’t know how it happened but I thought of them as angels. As for the swings, I have always been fascinated by the movement of a swing, going slowly back and forth. It’s like lulling a child to sleep, a gesture of comfort nearly a gesture of healing.

Kaija Poijula - Plenty of time

With “Little Buddha”, you seem to visually revisit “Angels’ Swings”…

Kaija Poijula - Little Buddha (2011)

Recently, my daughter returned from school and I could sense

Kaija Poijula, "Little Buddha", detail (2011)

something was going wrong. In the morning, her class watched images of this year’s March earthquake and tsunami in Japan and she was under the belief that her father was there at that moment – he actually was on a business trip in China. She was suffering to the point that she was not daring to phone him because she feared nobody would answer. In this piece, there are swings for all the victims whose life was interrupted. At the bottom of this tree, I had my daughter’s footprints engraved in a stone, on the pattern of what we can see in the Asakura hall of the Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto (Kiyomizu-dera Asakura-do, the “Clear Water” temple).

Kaija Poijula - Little Buddha, detail 2011

One of the most beautiful elements of the “Clear Water” temple is its bell, another recurring element in your work… do your bells have a religious nature?

Kaija Poijula - "Bell" (2008)

I have always loved the sound of bells – without any religious

Kaija Poijula - "Highway" (detail with bells - 2011)

connotation. I was thus overjoyed when we moved to Dublin in Ireland and could listen to church bells daily. One of the most memorable artistic events of my recent four years stay in Ireland was a church bell concert I organized with 20 bell ringers playing  ”the bells of angelus” in canon from 4 bell towers.
I could have become a professional bell ringer as Leslie Taylor, Master Ringer in Dublin’s Christ Church Cathedral invited me to start a professional training and I would certainly have accepted if we were staying there longer but we moved in the neighbourhood of Galway, in the West of Ireland, Ennis – which made my commitment to such Dublin-based project impossible. In the countryside, I developed interest in the Irish and Celtic folklore which I started to illustrate for my personal purpose.

Kaija Poijula - Herttoniemen antependium

Kaija Poijula - Kulosaari antependium (2009)

- As part of your artistic education, you specialized in textile work, which resulted in many pieces commissioned by the Finnish Lutheran church. Has it enabled you to work on your artwork’s central themes of death and love – and the related issues of the presence of those we love in our lives and time oscillating between transience and eternity, in ways you had not envisaged before? As a freshly graduated student, I was admiring Juha Leiviskä’s architectural

Kaija Poijula - Harju Funeral Chapel (above the altar textile work)

work and one day I just took all my courage and phoned his office for an appointment: I had developed a series of textiles which I felt would fit his interiors perfectly. He might have thought the same as I ended up designing the church cloths for the Harju Funeral chapel (Mikkeli) that he restored and extended, the Villa Lepola (Espoo), and the Palestinian cultural centre (Bethlehem)… Using a boat on the antependium of the Harju Funeral Chapel, or a skeleton dancing with an angel for the one of the Kulosaari church, were initially perceived as pagan symbols rather than religious ones… it was however my perception of death in this specific context which is also consistent with the representation of death  in the Lutheran art history.

Kaija Poijula - Boats (blue), performance (1997)

There are two other art pieces that  I would like we talk about because they are so touching in their approach to keeping in touch with those who are gone: “boats” and “sempre fideles”.

Kaija Poijula - Boats (on fire), 1997

I created “Boats”for the Finnish Association for Mental Health (Suomen Mielenterveysseura) anniversary in Lahti (1997). I was thinking about a way to remember those who are gone and came to the conclusion that their soul could wander like boats are sailing on the waters, and we could remember them by setting the boats on fire. I was not expecting such an emotional process to take place when I started to look for unusable boats: there were lots of stories incarnated in those shipwrecks that still made them very dear to their owners! The boats had to then be mounted on a structure in the middle of the lake and prepared for burning harmoniously. The other moving aspect of this performance was that it accidentally – but are there such accidents? –  took place on my late father’s birthday date…

Kaija Poijula - Sempre fideles (2008)

In “Sempre fideles”, I started to work from these birds transporting letters during the First World War out of which many were love letters. Birds were shot to intercept potential military secrets but my focus was on all these love messages that never reached their addressees. And have you noticed that the heads of two birds projected shadow is a heart? (smiles)

Kaija Poijula - Sea and Ocean collection (part 1)

Kaija’s work is not only deeply poetical but also anticipates on a current trend that I would call “collaborative art” or “crowdsourced art”: installing “Angels’ Swings” in Helsinki was made possible thanks to the intervention of the Helsinki fire brigade that lifted the swings sufficiently high up so that nobody would hurt oneself, making “Little Buddha” was possible thanks to the Helsinki city garden administration and her stonesmith friend, “Sea and oceans collection part 1″ was made possible thanks to her friends who were each asked to contribute with a bottle of sea from their surroundings… Her artistic vision calls for other people’s engagement at a very early stage of the art work’s implementation, like an emergency cry to gather people around some of the deepest values we can share: love, friendship, beauty and hope… FOREVER. ____________________________________________________

KNOWING MORE ABOUT KAIJA POIJULA’S WORK

Kaija Poijula - Hymn

http://www.kuvataiteilijamatrikkeli.fi/taiteilija.asp?id=2662 Kaija’s textile work is visible in the churches of Kuulosaari (Helsinki), Herttoniemi (Helsinki) and at the Harju Funarary Chapel (Mikkeli) and at the Palestinian Cultural Centre (Bethlehem, Palestine)  (http://www.annadwa.org/about/about.htm more details and pictures at http://www.ark.fi/ark3_04/betlehem.html) Kaija recently exhibited at Saatchi Gallery London to the occasion of the “International Art Fair for contemporary objects” (gallery Norsu’s stand (www.norsu.info/) and at Stoa (www.stoa.fi)

KAIJA’S ONGOING/UPCOMING EVENTS

The Virinä gallery in Virrat (www.virrat.fi) is exhibiting her work until 18.6. The Johan S. gallery in Helsinki from 24th August to 11th September 2011 (http://www.galleriajohans.fi) featuring “Sea and oceans collection – part 2″, more dandelions and… Cheongju International Craft Biennale “Between tradition and future” 21.9.2011 – 30.10.2011 http://eng.okcj.org/home/main.do Finland is a guest nation to this South Korean Fair and Kaija Poijula’s work, alongside many other prominent Finnish designers, will be displayed by Ornamo (www.finnishdesigners.fi)

IN RELATION WITH KAIJA’S WORK

Those who are familiar with Hugo Simberg‘s work might find a correlation between Kaija’s treatment of the theme of death and the old Finnish master’s world of fallen angels, walking or dancing skeletons. Many of Simberg’s paintings and drawings are visible at the Ateneum  (www.ateneum.fi). Currently there is also an exhibition of Simberg’s work at the Didrischen’s (www.didrichsenmuseum.fi)

NOW CAN I PLAY WITH YOU

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From ruxnews@windowslive.com to alec@alec360.com , 30th December 11:48pm , SUBJECT: too many FB messages – where shall we start?

Hi Alec! Just saw the most extraordinary documentary on Albert Kahn (“The wonderful world of Albert Kahn” ) and his project called “Archives de la Planète”. The pictures and movies he commissioned about a century ago to document the world are mind-blowing: they sketch a world where it seems there was more understanding for human diversity than there is today (Jews and Arabs living together in Jerusalem, Macedonia and its incredible mix of nationalities, men and women – without a veil! – working together in the Moroccan fields, etc.). It gave me the curious impression that the many conventions and declarations proclaiming understanding and equality among people nowadays have become symbolic by entering into force when they used to lived upon before. What really stroke me too, was that some of these “Archives de la Planète” pictures of Asia, of Cambodia in particular, reminded me of yours… Is Asia eternal? Why so much Asia in your work by the way? http://www.albert-kahn.fr/archives-de-la-planete/mappemonde/Asie/Cambodge/

Fromalec@alec360.com to ruxnews@windowslive.com, 6th January 9:52pm, SUBJECT: RE: too many FB messages – where shall we start?

ONE DESTINY

Hi dearest! It’s fun you mention Albert Kahn as I was looking over a book containing information on his work recently. He certainly had vision and passion when he commissioned that documentation work – he must have born with an inexplicable wanderlust, an infuriating curiosity, and above all, a desire for continuous growth, the type of growth that can only come from the firsthand discovery of realities distant from one’s own -but at the end of the day, what he did was precisely that: he documented the world. I’m not trying to race around the planet with the intent of merely encapsulating our world in a series of snapshots. My intent is to create from the core of what I feel in a certain place, or situation. I obviously document through photography that which I’m living, but I wish to document MY world, not THE world. I don’t know if that makes any sense at all. What is out there fascinates me thanks to what it provokes in me and what it embeds in the deepest corners of my soul.

ONE SHADOW

Asia…Why Asia? Because of my mother, don’t you know? She instilled a passion for the Far East long in me before I could even point it out on a map. I grew up with tales of the terraced rice fields of Bali and the gold leafed palaces of Thailand, of the perfect beauty of Srinagar and even of the original Raffles hotel in Singapore. I was her ‘little Buddha’ before I had even stepped foot on Asian soil.

I guess my attraction to Asia also has a lot to do with the fact that I can’t understand anything that’s being said around me:  I can’t read the street signs and the ingredients in the markets can still be surprisingly foreign. I love to lose myself, become anonymous and feel foreign, and Asia gives me exactly that.

I am landing in Denver. Besos, xoxo

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AIR 2 BREATHE

From ruxnews@windowslive.com to alec@alec360.com, 5th January 12:10 am, SUBJECT: sympho-pic

When I first met you at ArtBasel last summer – you looked so damned gorgeous! – your photo installation resonated in my art overloaded mind like a “pixel symphony”. I created this concept just for you, you see The people you were portraying, were immersed in their natural environment but parts of it were repeating and developing like a motive in a symphony, singling a person and her/his loneliness out, putting her/him out of time. Your work was appealing more to my musical perception than to the visual one, although it started from there indeed… Why do you photoshop people’s environment in this manner, adding dots of space and time so as to stretch their universe? Can’t they breathe in their natural environment?

From alec@alec360.com to ruxnews@windowslive.com, 10th January 11:55pm, SUBJECT: RE: sympho-pic

SOCIALIST FIREFLIES

I never really ‘pixelize’ anything… what I sometimes do is alter the noise value of each of the images in order to reflect more accurately the imperfection of the world that surrounds not only my subjects, but also the world as I see it, but this alteration, or manipulation, or ‘pixelization’ only occurs when I feel that the final piece can be improved by doing so, or if part of the initial proposal of the series. I think it is important to punctualize that I use photography as the basis of my art but that my final proposal goes through a complex process. In my ‘portrait’ series, for example, the horizontal, broken up panels, not only represent the different stages of the instant my subject is living, but also the fragmented thought process I go through in order to arrive at the final image. I begin with one image and from it take snippets, which I can flip, stretch, mirror or even decolour, and in a way, that’s exactly what happens to us all in life: We are what you see in the moment, but that moment would not be without all the other moments that brought us to this point. I represent the present while interpreting the past and envisioning the future. I capture the moment but then I choose to find my place within that moment.

In “AIR 2 BREATHE”, there is old woman I saw in Datong, Northern China. I was seeking to represent in the most honest and

AIR 2 BREATHE

simple way, the absolute lack of space in the area. People literally live over, under, side-to-side and therefore lose the ability to respect the such ‘vital’ space we so jealously protect in the west. This lack of space, air, privacy was a reflection of the political and social situation the country has been living for what seems an eternity. The images are concentrated on buildings, overcrowded spaces and the lack of intimacy; invasion, voyeurism and the obsession of the East with the West and vice-versa; duality, suffocation and the place we each occupy as human beings. China is a country of contrasts: the old with the new, the sparsely with the opulence, the ‘in-your-face’ with the hush-hush of a society still repressed by a silent and veiled regime. The world has it’s eyes on China but at the same time the Chinese have had, and will always have their eyes, and ears, and hands, and feet, and soul all over the world.

The final installation ended up being a series of images titles ‘SOCIALIST FIREFLIES’. They are all dark images of buildings with small quantities of light illuminating only specific and strategic windows. When place in a completely dark room with painted black walls and only one tiny source of light, they truly illuminate like fireflies and it isn’t until you’re close up that you sense the claustrophobic.

I now write you from the Grand Hyatt at the Dallas Fort Worth airport where I have been stranded after delays in my departure from Denver led to my arriving into Dallas 2 hours late for my connecting flight to Cancun…. because of snow in Denver and in Dallas… Hello? Snow in Dallas?

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From ruxnews@windowslive.com to alec@alec360.com, 18th January 7:02 pm, SUBJECT: man-kind?

Snow in Dallas??? That’s unique. No snow surprise on my side: I am freezing and that’s only normal being in Lapland… What’s here to warm me up…reindeers? Getting excited with the Finnish parliamentary elections scheduled for 17th April this year. A party called the “True Finns” is raising in popularity. We have to read their lips: “no more immigrants”, “no more Europe”, “no more postmodernism”, etc. What is left after all these subtractions: a true Finn?

I can understand the issue of immigration is dividing Finns however: those countries that are patronizing others on the splendors of multiculturalism (France, UK) do not offer an inspiring example of a harmonious integration of their immigrants. You and I have been foreigners in all the countries we have lived in but the result is that we feel a citizens of the world, at ease everywhere – if we have a recipe, we should probably share it! There are of course moments when we feel from another planet (that’s human) or days when I’d wished not to belong to mankind (a society of insects would suit me better) but that’s another story: there is only one way home, meaning we belong wherever our heart and mind goes, isn’t it?

ONLY ONE WAY HOME

From alec@alec360.com to ruxnews@windowslive.com, 29th January 1:02 am, subject, RE: man-kind?

The more I hear about Finland, the more I think I should visit! Was it a subtle way of yours to ask me more details about the “ONLY ONE WAY HOME”… Cambodia, Tonle Sap, lake at dawn and the beauty of just one, small fishing boat sailing off into the distance. An image so relaxing it becomes haunting as it’s impossible to forget that only a few yards away there are still human remains in the hidden killing fields of the former Pol Pot regime. Can we simply sit and forget?

THE WARRIORS

Over the years, I have found that many answers to the heart and soul of a country can be found in these poor, forgotten and shun societies living by the rivers and lakes in the heart of the country. I was looking to them for clarity. What I found was the answer to what the place itself gave to me. I found myself in one of the most perfect situations ever, bathed by the morning rays and natures beauty all around… and yet, I never felt quite at ease. It wasn’t until this moment that I came to the realisation that in order for me to be able to sit on that barge, daydreaming down the Cambodian currents, hundreds of thousands of innocent women, children and men had to lose their lives to one of the most senseless, sadistic massacres ever… and it wasn’t too long ago that they were still be slaughtered. I looked around me and thought of all the unaccounted for bodies still decomposing in the nearby fields, of the remains hiding quietly at the bottom of the milky lake. It changed the entire scenery for me and made me have a deeper respect for the beauty that surrounded me.

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From ruxnews@windowslive.com to alec@alec360.com, 29th January 7:52 am, SUBJECT: photog

You have to know that I truly love your pic “ONLY ONE WAY HOME”. Nothing macabre in my attraction: it has painting like qualities (rendering, soft finish touch). There is this harmony between the fields (the voices) of death and the peace of the lake… Life continues, regardless. You got into the LACDA top 40 with that series (Los Angeles Center for Digital Arts http://www.lacda.com/ ). Impressive! I also like the sound of silence of your “Everybody’s gone” that won the overall award (juror’s selection – Jurors: Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb) and an extra honourable mention (by gallery director Hamidah Glasgow) at the Centre for Fine Art Photography’s exhibition ‘BLUE’( http://www.c4fap.org/ ) … Aren’t you a painter-musician kind of photog with your snapshot camera…!!!

EVERYONE IS GONE

From alec@alec360.com to ruxnews@windowslive.com, 4th February 6:16pm, Subject: RE: photog

Photography… it is the medium in which not only I choose to express myself at the moment. Photography, being a way to document my reality and then directly include it into my proposal, makes my conversation that much more honest. I play a lot with installations, I create conceptual pieces, I add writing and I experiment endlessly with the surfaces upon which I can print my images… all of this gives me a vehicle for expression which liberates me from the accustomed two dimensional image on a wall, and makes my production possibilities endless. I am also a published playwright and have been an actor my entire life I also produce, direct and have always been a supporter of the arts. I was even trained in classic ballet by the ex-director of the National Ballet Company of Mexico, Cuauhtemoc Najera – call me a Renaissance man, as one of my friends did, or think of myself as a passionate of the passionate who loves to create or helps others doing so – don’t you?

Besos, xoxoxo

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From ruxnews@windowslive.com to alec@alec360.com, 14th March 1:54 pm, SUBJECT: Nomadic lives

Alec, the pictures of your ONDARTE residence are just scandalooooous! Are you serious about people working with that view on the beach??? Whatever, lots of love and success to you with this new project – where do you find the energy?

From alec@alec360.com to ruxnews@windowslive.com, 14th March 9:22pm, SUBJECT: RE: Nomadic lives

Thanks for your wishes, guapa! I am also the founder of MIRA (Martignano International Residency for Artists www.miraresidency.com ) in Lecce, Italy on the top of ONDARTE www.ondarteresidency.com , in Akumal, Mexico – come and have a look some time! Both residencies offer living and working spaces for artists, in pristine, inspirational places, with the goal to promote their work internationally and aid them in furthering their careers. Being an artist is never easy and what I seek with these residencies is to feed the artists’ soul with a much needed dose of ‘tender-loving-care’ and support. We organize exhibitions, produce art books, plan conferences… anything that is needed to make sure we give each accepted artist a voice in the international artistic community. In a way it’s my humble way of saying thank you I guess, a small way of giving back. Besos, xoxo

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CRIMSON LULLABY from the series "CRASH-ED"

From ruxnews@windowslive.com to alec@alec360.com, 20th March 3:18 am, SUBJECT: Crush, Christ, CRASH-ED

Ciao ILLUMInato – that’s how I call the artists officially participating in the Venice Biennale this year! Are you already on your way to Iceland?

From alec@alec360.com to ruxnews@windowslive.com, 20th March 9:02 am, SUBJECT: RE: Crush, Christ, CRASH-ED

Just got in Iceland and soon on my way to London! Back to the country that inspired my “CRASH-ED” series, an ode to the hundreds of thousands of people all over the world (even though it originated as an ode to the Icelanders who deliberately crashed their vehicles in order to claim the insurance benefits) who have suffered, fallen and ‘crash-ed’ thanks to the outrageous political games being played by own power-hungry, inept leaders… I mean it: this tiny speck lost somewhere in the Northern hemisphere which was on the cutting edge of music, fashion, art, architecture, green living, etc… and frankly inspired enough trust to have several countries, almost completely, invest in a dream of stability, productivity and higher interest rates… and the world fell for it… so when the crash came, not only was it more shocking to those who had portrayed Iceland as an example to be followed, studied and applauded, but to the Icelanders themselves, who had begun to blow their own egos somewhat out of proportion, it was a wake-up to reality… and a harsh one at that. In Iceland, the ‘before’ and ‘after’ the crash are so radically opposite that it merited at least a visit. Once there I fell in love with the country and its complexities and contradictions.

Are you still there?

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All pictures are Alec Von Bargen’s and are copyrighted. Text by Ruxandra Balboa-Pöysti

I made a playlist mixing Alec’s likes (Damien Rice, Sigur Ros but also Selah Sue, Mahler) and what I believe could be his for you to enjoy http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=3698B93DB2E8BE90 .

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IN YOUR AGENDA’S

Human + Being Exhibition at the Center for Fine Art Photography Colorado from 25th March 2011 to 23rd April 2011 http://www.c4fap.org/

Soncino Biennale http://www.soncino.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=182&Itemid=66 from 30th April 30th to 21st May, Alec will be exhibiting his Crash-ed installation

54th Venice Biennale, Costa Rica Pavillon, 4th June – 27th November http://www.labiennale.org curated by Bice Curiger, this year the Biennale’s theme is “ILLUMInations”. http://art-2011.mylocalguide.org/place/costa-rica-pavilion-sant-elena-/21367

TO KNOW MORE ABOUT ALEC VON BARGEN’S WORK

http://www.saatchionline.com/profiles/index/id/247781
www.alec360.com
alecvonbargen.carbonmade.com

"Talvisota" album

- Your last solo exhibition at Gallery Kalhama&Piippo was called “Riskiperimä” (“Inherited Risks”, 2010 – in English) and was focusing on the Finnish Winter war. This theme has been present in your work for many years now and started with your watercolour album “Talvisota” (“Winter war”, 2005-2006 – in English). Aren’t you afraid of being catalogued an official painter of the Winter war post tempore?

- I wouldn’t like to be catalogued a winter war painter but over the last years, I have been inspired

"Sotasatu" album (detail)

by this theme a lot, and by the Lotta’s in particular. In Finland, we are taught only with praise about this period of our history and as I grew up, I wanted to emancipate myself from this one-directional teaching because war should not be lauded! War is a terrible thing in any country’s history.

In my album “Talvisota”**, I wanted to explore how a certain type of humour could be applied to war, resulting from a sort of collision between the world of “fairy tales” and the world of “war”. There are little characters from children tales glancing at war scenes, characters from fairy tales imported into war scenes, etc. I like to think that they make the all theme of war a little lighter to bear, turning the pages of the album as if you were turning the page of a story book.

- Your models, especially your portraits,  are rather realistic. What are your sources?

"Riskiperimä" installation at Gallery Kalhama&Piippo, 2010

For “Talvisota”, I used various public documentary sources: historical

photo album (detail)

accounts from newspapers, books, pictures, etc. For “Riskiperimä”, it was more personal: I turned to a photo album that existed in my family. It is a strange album because my father, who was an orphan during the second war, has never been able to name a single person from his family as represented in the album. Quite clearly, some people in the pictures have his very clear eyes, similar features but there is nobody we remember of. Besides this was a period of his life, my father was not willing to talk about. Few years ago, as he wanted to get rid of it, my mother gave it to me thinking it would be in good hands… My father was very moved after visiting the exhibition at Kalhama&Piippo because the whole album came to life somehow.

- They will probably be the last ones in this vein. I feel I am now able to turn to some other themes, although I am not yet sure which ones.

- As we talk about the themes present in your work, another one is the protection of environment. You have notoriously painted animals demonstrating for their own rights and protection – a series called“aktivisti eläimet” (2008)…

Ärsyttääkö?

- I wanted to turn to something more political. These animals are also fighting against

Kissamielenosoitus

unemployment, for a more environmental friendly lifestyle. To those who understand Finnish, I hope their banners sound very humorous. There is, for example, a polar bear saying “isn’t it irritating that you hardly can find nougat ice-cream from anywhere…”, a mouse simply saying “I can’t take it anymore”, cats asking for “good people” to lead them but at the same time saying that “cats are idiots”, etc.

- Your environmental concerns were appearing at a very early stage with “Puhdistus” (2002), a very flattering series of multicolored butterflies underlining the adaptability of these insects to their environment through their change of colour. Maybe environment is also your next theme…

- Minna Lappalainen*** – who has an atelier neighbouring to Kati’s – and I are working on a project with Turku Energia. The idea is to curate as series of art works to be displayed on electricity boxes. Minna pushed this idea through transforming dull electricity boxes into an art space in harmony with its environment. Could “environmental art” could qualify this approach…? It might be interesting to have some animal activists demonstrate there… we’ll see!

- As you plan to switch to another theme, do you plan to switch to another technique too after ten years of exclusivity in watercolour art?

- No!!! I tried a more expressionist way of painting while I was an art student but after I started to work with watercolour the thought of turning to anything else has never crossed my mind. Watercolours offer endless possibilities of playing with shades and transparencies and I love that.

- Is there a painter in watercolours you admire, one you could say is guiding your work?

- I admire Petri Hytönen’s work because of his technical mastery but also because he has a great sense of humour in his works!

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INTERVIEW RELATED LINKS

* Kati Immonen’s website: http://www.katimariaimmonen.com/

Kati Immonen’s atelier is located in the Alpha building, Turku. I very much enjoyed taking some pictures of her working environment in the wide sense of the term the day we organized the interview http://www.flickr.com/photos/49478590@N04/sets/72157626002165061/

** Her watercolours album “Sotasatu” just returned from Turkey were it was successively shown at Platform-Garanti in Istanbul and K2-gallery in Izmir. She will also comment it at the Lotta museum 4th March as from 12:15  http://www.lottamuseo.com/eng/index.html

*** Minna Lappalainen’s website: http://minnamaijalappalainen.net/

**** Petri Hytönen’s website: http://www.petrihytonen.com/ Kati Immonen and Petri Hytönen have both been part of the collective exhibition “Play time” at the Nordic watercolour museum http://akvarellmuseet.org/Kultur_Default.aspx?id=47012 .

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IN YOUR AGENDA’s

Meet with Kati Immonen at the Lottamuseo in Tuusula: 4th March 12:15. She will present her album”Sotasatu” .

Collective exhibition at Pyhäniemen kartano www.pyhaniemenkartano.fi This is a beautiful concert (also in the gardens) and exhibition manor located close to Lahti and KatiImmonen’s work will be displayed alongside Pekka Jylhä’s, Panno Pohjolainen, etc. It constitutes an ideal summer excursion from Helsinki (one and half hour drive) if you happen to visit then. Opening/vernissage: 2nd July 2011 14:00-18:00 ; exhibition and concert programme 3rd July 2011 – 14th 2011 August 11:00-18:00; different types of access passes – for further details please consult their site.

Visit the Nordic Watercolour Museum: the Akvarellmuseet http://akvarellmuseet.org/Kultur_Default.aspx?id=47012 opened in 2000 and has an extensive collection of watercolours by Nordic artists. It also organizes temporary exhibitions focusing on contemporary watercolour art (next in line: Julie Nord, Emil Nolde and as from 25.9.2011 “Mexico – poetry and politics” which seems very promising. It is located in Skärhamn, about 50 km North from Göteborg.

Raija Malka, Kaija Saariaho, Melek Mazici and Amin Maalouf: the four artists involved in "Tidelines"

At times when a fierce identity debate rages in many European countries, this exhibition centers the discussion on the plurality of our identities defined as a combination of belongings rather than on the prevailing uniqueness of any of them[iii]. Do we belong to the country we are born in or to the country we are living in and why should anyone have to choose between those two, three, and many more identities at any point in time? Melek’s work is non political but how not to wish that her technical and aesthetic sophistication could help those less receptive to words to understand the beauty hiding behind the acceptance of own and others’ multiple belongings…

Melek Mazici "My Garden"

- How did the idea of ”Tidelines” emerge and ended up involving such a variety of prominent artists – two visual artists (yourself and Raija Malka[iv]), a composer (Kaija Saariaho[v]) and a writer (Amin Maalouf[vi])?

-       Raija Malka and myself have neighbouring studios. We have gradually developed an artistic friendship and wanted to work together. Two years ago, when I started the reading of Amin Malouf’s book ”In the name of identity”, I thought we could do something tridimensional starting from his text. I wrote the synopsis of this idea taking some of Maalouf’s resonating paragraphs turned into ”objects”. Raija

Raija Malka's "Tidelines"

(Malka)loved it and forwarded it to her friend Kaija (Saariaho) with whom she had collaborated before, and Kaija in turn submitted it to Amin (Maalouf) with whom she has always worked very closely[vii]. Amin Maalouf’s text on identities operated as an impulse creating an artistic chain.

-       Is the installation the result of a close collaboration all throughout these two years or did you rather work individually based on the initial idea once it was agreed upon?

We worked very closely on the sentences on identity that touched us but we continued to create as individual artists, with our own vocabulary, more independently, without sharing how we developed on our common theme.

My contribution to ”Tidelines” consists of plexi-boxes containing my ”waveforms” based on the view that our identities are jewels and a wall of silk embroideries called ”my garden”.

Waveforms

In the plexi-boxes (they resemble cases displaying a jewel), there is a series of blue waves in

waveforms (detail)

watercolor and crystals. Waves come and bring the jewels that gradually constitute our identity and these additions enrich us all the time. The crystals too are like a mosaic of identities themselves.

On the wall, I have displayed a series of silk embroideries. I called it ”My garden” because to me, a garden is composed of different flowers, each fostering own beauty and identity. Individually, these flowers don’t mean anything, they mean something only as a whole. And so it goes with our cultural identities: we do not belong to one culture exclusively, it would be so narrow-minded! Throughout life, we embrace a plurality of cultural belongings and they constitute our richness on a personal level. The artists involved in this project are all marked by their multiple belongings. ”Tidelines” is referring to our bringing together of diversities.

-       In the past, you have worked with silk embroideries already (a stunning series called ”wings of eternity” which I adore) – has  textile a special importance in your art?

As a child I grew up with all the silks, laces, organza’s, etc. used in my three aunts’ clothes design atelier. I learnt how to appreciate beautiful textiles, silk in particular and its shininess. Besides, I have a lot of respect for the traditional handicraft activities of women out of which embroidering. ”My garden” is therefore also an ode to femininity.

- In your catalogue you say: ”in my installations, my memories are their most concrete (…) there is nothing symbolic about them”.  Could we talk about your ”black and white 1” where you look at yourself into a circular pool filled with water (2002). Who do you look at?

-       I wanted to see my reflection into the water, I wanted to see my inner side, how I am as a person. Setting the example of looking at my inner self was an invitation for other people to try and look at themselves in a similar way. In the Turkish culture, one would look at own features in the reflection to know about their good fortune, but I wanted people to look at themselves from the inside.

-       The theme of your own identity is also explored in your series called ”books”. Are they real books, can you turn their pages to discover something new on each page or is the book a simple support for a graphical art work?

Books

-       They are real books that I covered, bundled like a real piece of handicraft. I started to produce

Books (detail)

them while I was on a scholarship in Rome. I collected items during my walks and constituted a diary of feelings. The ”books” are intended for a reading without text, like a book of feelings.

-       You seem to be very comfortable exploring new techniques. This is particularly perceivable in your landscape series where you use image-on, carborundum, polymergravure…etc.

Blue landcape

-        Yes, I like to constantly try and learn about new techniques to support my exploration of looking inside of me. In my ”landscapes” created with the techniques you mentioned, I start from a well-defined photo of a landscape to reach a level of inner scenery where you can’t recognize the place anymore. There is nothing still in landscapes: they have a rhythm, a perpetual motion and a sense of eternity.

-       You don’t want any of your identities to be singled out from the others, but you are born in Turkey where you regularly exhibit. Can you tell us more about the emerging Turkish contemporary art scene?

-       It is flourishing and very dynamic. It started 20 years ago with the Istanbul Biennale[viii] that offers a great window into Turkish contemporary art. There are also lots of very engaged galleries, among which mine, and they are reaching at a very young and open audience. There are also not one but two museums of modern art[ix] that are notably supported by private companies and not by the state. These facts all contribute to a tangible artistic effervescence[x]

Twin roses.

-       Is the Finnish contemporary art scene equally dynamic in comparison?

-       In Finland, we have many great artists and art education is paramount but we need to be more active internationally. These highly talented people need places where to show their work as well as the related international recognition. It seems to me that there were more galleries when I graduated thirty years ago than nowadays… we need more of them and more action! I love NY and its tradition of private openings: you have an apartment that’s an exhibition space provided you open your doors… This mentality is not present here in Finland but we will hopefully work something out!

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[i] www.melekmazici.com

“Tidelines” plexi-boxes

[ii] Tidelines is visible at the Kiasma museum until 13th March 2011 http://www.kiasma.fi/calendar/exhibitions/tidelines

[iii] The definition of identities is taken from Amin Maalouf’s ”Les identités meurtrières”, Grasset, 1998 translated into English (American) ”In the name of indentities: Violence and the need to belong  ”, NY, Arcade Publshing, 2000.

[iv] Raija sepaks about Tidelines on her blog  http://www.raijamalka.com/category/blog/

[v] www.saariaho.org 13th February 2011, Kaija Saariaho’s ”L‘Amour De Loin” recording was awarded a grammy -

"L'amour de loin" on stage

Kent Nagano, conductor; Daniel Belcher, Ekaterina Lekhina & Marie-AngeTodorovitch; Martin Sauer, producer (Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Rundfunkchor Berlin) [Harmonia Mundi]

[vi] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amin_Maalouf and www.aminmaalouf.org

[vii] They have composed (Kaija Saariaho, music) and written (Amin Maalouf, libretto) three opera’s together: ”L’amour de loin” (première 2000),  ”Adriana Mater” (première 2006) and ”Emilie” (première 2010) as well as an oratorio: ”La passion de Simone” (première 2006).  All these pieces are stunning of beauty and intensity and I can only recommend to jump on the grammy award winning version of ”L’amour de loin”, especially to those who do not yet appreciate contemporary music: you might be surprised how deeply it can move you!

[viii] 12th Istanbul Biennal will take place in Istanbul 17th September-13rd November 2011

Take your seat to the Biennale's next edition

http://www.iksv.org/bienal/english/bienal.asp?cid=105 . It is curated by Adriano Pedrosa, Jens Hoffmann and Bige Orer.

[ix] http://www.istanbulmodern.org/en/f_index.html

[x] An example among hundreds: Lehmann Maupin’s debut exhibition in Istanbul ”Five in Istanbul” at gallery Borusan Muzik Evi http://www.lehmannmaupin.com/#/exhibitions/2010-10-27_five-in-istanbul-a-selection-of-artists-from-lehmann-maupin-gallery/

Aariikka was founded by your mother, Kaija Aarikka. The whole business idea started from missing buttons for her master thesis work in applied arts. Could you tell us the full story?

My mother was working on a woollen dress for which she could find no adequate buttons and as a result decided to design them herself. Those buttons, shaped in the simple, natural and rounded form which later became Aarikka’s trademark, were the most remarked part during the exhibition of her work. Button orders started to flow in immediately from all parts of Finland. To further develop her business, she participated in a fair in Frankfurt for which she designed some wooden jewelry to be displayed next to the then famous buttons and that too was a success.

Aarikka was founded in 1954 and today it is still building on my mother’s love for natural materials, wood and silver in her case, and bright and warm colours. Colouring wood was not an obvious step in the ’50 and ’60 as jewelry was dominated by darker types of woods such as mahogany, jacaranda, ebenholz and teak. To create the colourful design she had in mind, she had to turn to pine and birch, which could be coloured more easily.  Together with her husband, she developed a dyeing process which allowed the natural texture of the wood to show while preserving the quality and durability of the colour over time. This process, which is supported by machines they developed at the time, is still in use today.

Aarikka is quite remarkable in that it is producing its jewelry and decoration items in Finland, from Finnish natural materials, naturally processed. How do you manage to meet these challenges of being environmentally friendly and supporting business locally when many companies outsource their production to remote countries to cut costs?

Our company values are strong and were present from the very beginning of its history. We wanted Finland to be the centre of our production processes to ensure quality as well as good and long lasting relationships with our suppliers. Not only do we use natural materials processed naturally, but the wood we use comes from the Helsinki region, reducing our carbon footprint.  We are also pioneers of what is nowadays called ”social responsability” as we have always used homeworkers for the assemby of our jewelry for example, especially elderly and handicaped persons looking for an extra source of income. Aarikka also supports community causes through the sales of some of its products. We are donating €3 from the sale of each of our Christmas elves, Mahti-tonttu, for example, to families in need through the association Tukikummit.

You  just mentioned one of your newest elves, Mahti-tonttu, which gives us the opportunity to turn to the Christmas decoration aspect of this interview. What are Aarikka’s Christmas decoration trends this year?

Aarikka has a long tradition of collector elves which started in the 70s and I am hopeful that we will soon exhibit the full series as a collection. This year, our elves have adopted a gigantic and playful format. The Mahti-tonttu we have already mentioned,is the biggest elf we have ever created. There is also Keikku-tonttu that can roll from one side to the other of the table bringing laughters and smiles. Candle holders and serving plates inspired by one of Kaija’s ealier designs are available in our traditional colours and as well as in turquoise which is one of this year’s trendy colours.

We also have all the typical Scandinavian Christmas tableware: small glögi spoons, glögi cups, wooden plates, candle holders for above the table, those to be placed on the table itself, decorative crowns and even a Christmas crib all made of Finnish wood.

Christmas is also a time for gifts. Tell us about your jewelry novelties?

This season we have launched design jewelry inspired by some of our vintage models such as Pariisi, using larger size wooden balls fashionable in the after-war Paris, or Tuuli which is a totally new model.  We have also designed wooden wall clocks and coat hooks decorated with the typical Aarikka balls, which make original presents.

Aarikka is present in many countries through retailer networks. Where are your largest sales volumes?

We are especially present in Japan, the US and the Scandinavian countries. Recently, we have started to be very appreciated in Saudi Arabia. We also have an online shop www.aarikka.com, which widens our market perspective.

Aarikka is one of Finland’s most appreciated brands. I hope you understand why now…

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IN YOUR AGENDA’S

Visit Aarikka’s factory shop in Helsinki

Nokiantie 2-4 C, 00510 Helsinki

Open: Mo.-Thur. 9 am – 5pm Fri. 9am – 4pm

More details by e-mail: tehtaanmyymala@aarikka.com or phone: +358 9 770 44 202 Fax +358 9 773 12 56

- Could you tell us about your family’s early involvement in arts and how it worked on your imagination as a child?

As a child, I was surrounded by the gold, silver of our family’s Russian icons and other precious stones of our jewelry collection but also by Ilya Repin’s paintings and drawings as my grandfather, Aleksandr Schuvaloff, a renowned Russian chocolate maker, and later my own father, Nicolaï Schuvaloff, an art dealer, were fans and sponsors of his art. Our family constituted a collection of about 500 pieces of Repin’s art work while they had neighboring cottages in Kuokkola. As a result of this close relationship, our family also possessed numerous photos and documents related to his life in Finland, where he emigrated after the Russian revolution, as did my own family. This archives fund is now in the possession of the Finnish central art archives. My mother, Marina Akutin, was a classical oil painter of landscapes , still lives and portrays who, alongside my father, gave me my first drawing and painting classes (on the right side, Maria Akutin “birches”). My bedtime stories were rarely fairy tales but rather anecdotes and stories of Repin’s artisitic life.

-       Your main source of inspiration is the Finnish nature and in particular its birches… Is it replacing the icons of your childhood?

-       In my atelier in Snappertuna (Raasepori) where the main sources of my inspiration lie, I have a breathtaking view on birches and reeds on the seashore, which I have represented in many paintings. I love them during the darker Finnish seasons… I love everything about them: how they stand in a landscape but also their beautiful multilayered texture. I have a birch tree in my atelier to support my work on their structure. Symbolically, Snappertuna, is also a place symbolizing the inner confrontation of the various cultures I was raised in: Russian, Finnish, Swedish and French.

-       Your art of oil painting owes a lot to Eila Ekman-Björkmann who further taught you the technique of oil painting. Can you tell us a few words about your relationship to her and her painting universe and also evoke the Viipurin Taiteilijan seura to which both of you belong and celebrates its 80 years of existence with a retrospective at Lahti at the Ladhen taidemuseo?

I got to learn Eila Ekman-Björkman in the middle of eighties.  First she was like a teacher to me and little by little our relationship turned into a deep friendship with respect for each other’s art.  Eila’s works are fauvist and expressionist, full of colour and energy.  I guess pure colours and precise forms are common to our art besides the viewer can always find new elements to consider when looking at our works.  We however paint differently although the insight is similarly deep.  My new way of painting has turned into a more and more realistic expression.  We are also united by our love for music.

Concerning the Viipurin Taiteilijaseura, to which Eila and I belong, it is an old and respected art society in Finland which celebrates its 80 years of existence this year.  Eila’s and my roots are in Viipuri: Eila was born there and so was my mother, also a member of this art society.

To know more about Elena Schuvaloff-Maijala’s work, please consult: www.elenamaijala.com ; More information about Elena’s exhibition at the art museum in Lahti (until 14^th November) http://www.lahdenmuseot.fi/main.php?id=84

Ilya Repin’s work is displayed at the Metropolitan museum in the US, at the National Gallery in the UK and State Russian museum in Saint-Petersburg for example. He did lots of portraits of personalities of his time (from Nicolas II to Tolstoï nobody escaped his talented brush) and remains known in art history as the head of school Russian realism essentially representing social scenes.

http://www.fng.fi/fng/rootnew/fi/kka/valokuvakokoelmat/kka-arkistot-kokoelmat-valokuvat-ns.htm and also the article

“Nikolai Schuvaloffin arkisto – Ilja Repin ja venäläistä emigrantti historiaa” http://www.fng.fi/fng/html4/fi/archive/news/doku2_02/d0202.pdf

• For fans of birches, reeds and seashore the Finnish way:

Suon satu by Aaro Hellaakoski

Turhaan turhan vuoksi

Kakki tapahtuu.

Hiljasuuden  luoksi

kasvoi koivupuu

laitaan suuren suo-maan,

jossa lahotaan

harmajainsa huomaan

kokomaan;

nosti sinne viirin

pienen viehreän,

yli soitten piirin

sammal-sileän.

Suuremmiksi taitaan

Tulla kuin on tuo,

Noussut soitten laitaan

Hiljai suuden luo.

Harmeenko  suoksi

Sekin  koivupuu?

Turhaan  turhan  vuoksi

Kaikki  tapahtuu.

I could not resist adding some poems inspired by birch trees and Elena Schuvaloff-Maijala’s exhibition written by our 8 years old daughter.

Koivu by

Solveig Pöysti

Kun  koivun  kauniin  näin,

Halusin  heti  juosta  päin.

Oli  se  niin  kaunis,

Että  jopa  kauris

Oli  kateellinen.

Surullinen koivu by  Solveig  Pöysti

Kun  surullisen  koivun  näin,

Menin  surullisena  kotiin  päin.

Oli  se  niin  surullinen,

Että  oli  strutsin  otettava  kurkullinen  teetä.

Iloinen koivu by   Solveig Pöysti

Näin  iloisen  koivun  niin,

Että  halusin  heti  mennä  purkkiin.

Niin  iloisen  koivun  olin  nähnyt,

Että  osasin  jo  tehdä  kärryt.

Naurava koivu by  Solveig Pöysti

Näin  nauravan  koivun,

Halusin   kuulla  kauniin  soinnun.

- What brought you to painting and more in particular to portraits?

-       Painting is a one of the most powerful mediums to explore the world. As a student in my last year of psychology, I got hooked by this art and started to attend painting classes intensively. I am exploring techniques that enable the expression of a form of ”embodied thinking”. I like the sensory experience of painting with oil, which opens to more awareness and thoughts. I mainly paint portraits, body parts and nudes because I am interested in human beings and human life, more specifically people’s complexity and identity.  In my current exhibition, I am paying attention to the flesh as an embodiment of a person’s inner world.

-       You are a psychologist by education and now further study dance therapy. How do painting and dance connect in your art?

-       Movement and dance are mediums supporting the exploration of our self-awareness, inner processes and history as well as our unconscious material. My current training in dance therapy helps me gather all my interests in creativity, psychology and brain science and use them to deepen my intuitive approach to painting. I work as a psychologist only episodically because it helps me balance my quite solitary life as an artist by interacting with very diverse people. I should stress that these part-time work episodes don’t keep me away from painting but rather enrich my life experience and ensure the financial stability I need to develop my art.

- Do you use real models for your portraits?

-      I use models from time to time, including myself, and I surely like painting from live situations, especially when it resorts to landscapes (nda: they were recently exhibited in the Ruoholahti metro station). I also very much enjoy painting live models. I am almost always working from perception. The world of perception is so rich and offers endless exploration possibilities! I am however also very inspired by advertisement pictures. I translate my feelings towards what is often a stereotyped and polished, “on-the-surface” image of woman into oil portraits. I then want to bring out her fragility. When painting from an advertisement, I want this process to somehow free women from such condescension and add the depth of their inner world to their representation. I then paint from a visual imagery present in my mind followed by some mirror work to manage a proper expression.

-       Three years ago, one of your portraits was censored here in Finland. Could you tell us more about this?

-       After few days of exhibition, I was asked to remove a portrait called ”kaipaus” (”longing”) that was exhibited at the Cable Factory in Helsinki. I was told the girl’s expression was too shocking and people were disturbed after looking at the painting… It was indeed a so far unique and very strange experience.

-       Today’s contemporary scene is dominated by conceptual art and the research of shocking experiences when it comes to bodies.  Do you feel that classical figurative painters still have a say today?

-       I am not receptive to conceptual art. I prefer the warmth of figurative art: painting real people, their inner world exhibited on their body and by constantly work on my techniques to be able to better express my perceptions. I am open the perspective of integrating painting with dance and performance however but I don’t see it impact on my figurative approach.

One of the most fascinating questions in art history is the one of the representation of bodies and their movement not only because it requires understanding – and accepting – a form imposed by a two-dimensional perspective but also because such questioning enables to reach the very essence of movement and this perhaps in its ability to define the self and its shell: our body. Over the last century, dance and performance arts have grown alongside visual arts, but recently some artistic phenomena’s have brought this connection under a new light – let us alone consider Trisha Brown’s work. Elina Aho’s professional background, her openness and dedication will certainly propel her at forefront of such explorations.

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• In your agenda’s this month:

Elina Aho’s ”Body/images” exhibition is visible at Galerie Oljemark www.galleriat.net/oljemark from 3^rd November to 28^th November. Two meetings with the artist are scheduled: Saturday 20^th November 12:00-15:00 and Saturday 27th November 12:00-15:00. To know more about her work, please consult: http://elinaaho.carbonmade.com/, www.galleriat.net/oljemark , www.nayttely.info ,
http://picasaweb.google.com/aho.elina/ElinaAhoPaintings

• At the forefront of the graphical explorations with ”Body parts” – and possible censorship:

Daniel Gordon www.danielgordonstudio.com is an impressive young photographer who manages tridimensional effects in his collage works on body parts. Gordon’s work will culminate in a book on “Body parts” to be released next autumn.

Ashkan Hornarvar www.ashkanhornarvar.com is brilliantly exploring a world of mutilations and the impact of disease and war on the body. Last year, the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands “censored” – it was a more complex mechanism – his work because it was felt to be shocking and inappropriate for display in a public place, such as the Haarlem City Hall that welcomed his joint exhibition with Sander Reijgers www.sanderreijgers.nl and Adrian Brun www.adrianbrun.com on the theme of “corporality and intimacy”. His series “Meat” – visible on his website – is certainly more explicit than his “faces” series which was so decried at the time. What do you think: was Elina Aho or Ashkan Harnarvar censored work “shocking” enough to justify their works being removed from public space?

http://www.hpdetijd.nl/archive/2009-11-23/gemeente-haarlem-dreigt-kunst-te-censureren

• When dance, performance and painting collide:

Trisha Brown http://www.trishabrowncompany.org is not only an iconic American dancer and choreographer but also a successful drawer creating large-scale pieces with charcoal, oil sticks, etc. using her whole body to draw during much awaited performances at the end of which her graphical work is sold.  

• On the art of perspective

Daniel Arasse Histoires de Peintures, Denoël, 2004: some must-read chapters on the fascinating history of the adoption of two-dimensional perspective by Western civilization.