A WING HESITATES

Vanhan Raatihuoneen Galleria, Turku, Finland
6.10.–12.11.2017
3H+K, Pori, Finland, 5.1.–25.1.2018
Myymälä2, Helsinki, Finland, 8.2.–4.3.2018

On a lovely flower I land to catch my breath. I rest my wings and enjoy a few drops of nutritional gruel.

I'm observing the nature fooling around with cryptic coloration, the effects of color and light. A bird's coloring is made up of singular plumes and feathers... like a mosaic. I'm contemplating the masquerade of a hunter dressed up in camouflage and screaming bright orange. Once I saw a seagull and thought it was an angel. Once I zoomed infinitely into a single pixel and felt a path open, leading to the source of an unnamed nutriment. The sun has inspired tons of art, like the tanning bed for example. It is all nature! Bless the whole world! 

I flew over a wall separating the city and the woods. On it some naked witches were rehearsing their balance beam routines. I flew over a monastery and saw people gathering to form amplifiers for prayer. I flew over a lawn marking the spot where there's no need to grow food. On the silk road I saw a truck carrying the cotton fabrics printed for Jan Anderzén. 

I'm on a true meadow. I'm aware that love gives you wings and that any flap of my wings may cause a tornado in some faraway land. Shattered bridges flying through the air, flocks of cars swiped into the ocean. My wings are closed, rubbing against each other in a circular motion – producing some small blithe rattle pitched too high for the human ear to catch.

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Kukalle suloiselle laskeudun ja hengähdän. Lepuutan siipiäni ja maistan muutaman tipan ravintovelliä. 

Tarkkailen luontoa leikkimässä suojavärityksillä, sävyjen ja valojen tuottamilla efekteillä. Lintujen väritys muodostuu yksittäisistä sulista ja höyhenistä... kuin mosaiikki. Mietin metsästäjän naamiaisia, kun hän sonnustautuu maastoasuun ja huutavan kirkkaaseen oranssiin. Kerran luulin lokkia enkeliksi. Kerran zoomasin loputtoman syvälle yhteen pikseliin ja tunsin tien avautuvan tuntemattoman ravinnon lähteille. Aurinko on innoittanut monenmoista taidetta, kuten solariumin. Sekin kaikki luontoa! Siunaa koko maailma! 

Lensin yli kaupungin ja metsän rajaavan muurin, jolla alastomat noidat harjoittelivat puomiohjelmiansa. Lensin yli luostarin, jonne ihmiset olivat kokoontuneet muodostaakseen vahvistimen rukouksille. Lensin yli nurmikon, joka merkitsi paikkaa, jossa ei tarvitse kasvattaa ruokaa. Silkkitiellä näin rekan, jossa matkusti Jan Anderzénin painattamat puuvillakankaat. 

Olen todellisella kedolla. Tiedän, että rakkaus antaa siivet ja mikä tahansa siiveniskuni voi aiheuttaa tornadon jossakin kaukaisessa maailmankolkassa. Sillat lentävät silppuna ilmaan ja autoparvet huuhtoutuvat mereen. Siipeni ovat suljetut ja hierovat toisiaan vasten tehden pyörivää liikettä. Se saa aikaan pientä hilpeää rahinaa, joka on liian kimeää ihmiskorvan tavoitettavaksi. 

glass mosaic
11,50 m x 2,45 m
2015–2016

Tarinatori, Länsimäki, Vantaa, Finland (map)

with the assistance of Jakob Johanssen, Maija Kasvinen, Seija Tulonen, Timo Höyssä, Pirjo Saanio, Thomas Westphal, Felipe Carvalho, Mosaiikkimiljöö, Länsimäen kirjasto.

HEI!
Did you document this as well? Send me a link to your photo and I will add it to the gallery. jan at kemiallisetystavat.com

THE SPRING CELEBRATION
(or Below the Angels)

Galleria Rajatila, Tampere, Finland
25.4.–12.5.2015

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1.

In the 1973 BBC documentary The Ascent of Man Jacob Bronowski marvels at humanity. He sees pole vaulting as a crystallization of various human idiosyncrasies: an exact grip no ape can quite match, the utilizing of a tool, the will to battle gravity and to rise higher than her or his peers. What sets off the pole vaulter is not fear but exaltation. In a sporting event people gather together to see who's the best at breaking away from the pull of the earth. 

2.

The Great Maze Book by Greg Bright was published the same year. The ecstatic introduction text convinces the reader that a maze can be something more than merely a fun game. 

“My mazes are patterns, and, as such, they relate to other patterns, from fast flowing water to the stars in the sky. But this emphasis on the visual aspects is misleading. ... My real concern with the making of mazes involves no interest with the overall visual result whatsoever. ... The thrill of being lost, the strangeness of routing (the mazes) — these are the sort of things that originally attracted me to mazes.”

3.

There is a concept in Dianetics called Contagion of Aberration. It refers to a phenomenon where a group of people stimulate each other to do things that are insane.

4.

Two shapes side by side and another one beneath them – there are faces everywhere. Google tells us about a technology they have developed: "While a computer won’t react like you do when you see a photo, a computer can be trained to recognise certain patterns of colour and shapes. For example, a computer might be trained to recognise the common patterns of shapes and colours that make up a digital image of a face." Google doesn't tell us if the computer will recognise a face of an angel. 

5.

"He played with an intensity and a force and a sureness that was physical, palpable. When he started to get into it, he made me stand up out of my chair and back up. – – I realised I was at the back of the room when my spine bumped into the back wall. I went into the men's room because I couldn't handle the intensity. I was leaning my head against the cool vomit-green tile and drawing deep breaths, trying to calm down, when the door went wham! and in walks John Coltrane, still playing at top intensity and volume, totally into it. He blew me out so bad I slid down the wall. The guy was still playing his solo." 

(David Crosby: Long Time Gone) 

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As part of the exhibition three listening events took place, hosted by experts of exciting sound:

Sunday 26th of April Kobran Kädet (Tampere)
Saturday 2nd of May Mental Alaska (Helsinki)
Saturday 9th of May Himera (Turku)

Le Cool interview (in Finnish)