Episodes
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A short New Years greeting from me in Copenhagen, with a small public-service announcement of how the podcast is continuing after this holiday. Thank you for listening, talk to you next year! For questions, comments, or other feedback, write me on [email protected]
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I meet Oskar Partanen in Annantalo in Helsinki, to see his solo exhibition Self Titled and talk about his cute but eerie sculptures that move and make sounds. His creatures live side-by-side in one room, but somehow seem to all exist within each their own universe. We talk about repurposed items, pragmatic choices in materials, and Oskar explains how he has hacked electronic audio devices and built motorised constructions to give his figures life. We get into childhood dreams, discuss how children might be better art critics than adults, and reflect on how to make work that speaks adult language in a child-friendly way. Also, on this episode you hear me speak a bit more Finnish, we have an actionpacked live-moment with an artwork, and we have a surprise cameo of Marloes van Son's interactive sound work!
Oskar's Instagram
Annantalo's website
Oskar's exhibition on Annantalo's website
Marloes' website
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Missing episodes?
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Today on the podcast, I have little treat! As a Christmas present, I made a live recording of an exclusive, improvised Christmas collage concert! I am layering five Finnish Christmas cassette tapes, all played on old, analogue tape players, to sculpt a new old holiday sound for you to enjoy while you are waiting for Christmas Eve. There is a lot of old gold in the mix, but everything is in Finnish and played simultaneously. A very merry, morphed X Mess Mashup, to all of you from every me <3
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I return to Asbestos Art Space in Helsinki, to see Kamila Śladowska's solo exhibition Growing Interconnectedness, which has turned the gallery into a surreal painting installation of water, plants, and morphed shapes of naked, human bodies. Kamila tells about foraging herbs and finding inspiration in nature's ecosystems, and guides us through her assemblage of deconstructed paintings and sculptural elements. She explains how her art is an existential and political tool to deal with topics such as ecology, sexuality and gender, and how growing up in a country dominated by oppressive Catholicism has created a need for rebellious commentary within herself. Kamila also tells a bit about how she relates to the concept of hydrofeminism and how water is an essential element in her work, and we get to hear a small concert on her collaborative hydrophone Herb Brew Instrument (this is best heard with headphones or decent speakers).
Kamila's website
Kamila's Facebook page
Kamila's Instagram
Asbestos' website
Asbestos' Facebook page
Asbestos' Instagram
And the Herb Brew Instrument collaborators:
Robert Prakapovich's Instagram
Mark Reid Bulatovič's Instagram
Kristīne Tukre's Instagram
Wanda Kamińska's Instagram
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I meet Paola Fernanda Guzmán Figueroa in Oodi library in Helsinki, to talk about her video work Nanita, para siempre. Paola explains how her Colombian roots grew stronger while living in Finland, and how she keeps a close connection to her family by making them a focal point in her art. We discuss different techniques for working with film- and video, and Paola talks about the process, and feeling, of making one thousand drawings of her grandmother for the animation film projected in the library. We also talk about showing art in public spaces not created for exhibitions, and how an audience reacts differently when they are surprised by art rather than looking for it.
Paola's website
Paola's Instagram
Kino Club's Instagram
Kino Club's Facebook page
Oodi's website
ALA Architects' website
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In this crossover episode with OOO Radio (Out of Office), James Prevett guides me through his exhibition Together With in Forum Box gallery in Helsinki. James explains how ongoing collaborations with other artists, the public, and his daughter, helps him reconsider and reinvent himself as sculptor, teacher and curator, as we look at years of different initiatives of socially engaged sculpture displayed side-by-side. We talk about material translation, travelling artworks, methods of public participation, and how every project entails its own set of practical, ideological and aesthetic premises.
This episode was broadcast live on OOO Radio at the time of recording, as a crossover with the community-radio component of the exhibition. Contact OOO Radio on [email protected] if you are interested in getting involved.
James' website
James' Instagram
OOO Radio (Out of Office)
Forum Box's website
Parties for Public Sculptures
Malmö Monument
Parts (for Muuri) scores
Listen to Conversation Pieces (Things for Homes / Homes for Things)
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I finally sit down with Niko Nordström, to talk about his solo performance This Is Why I'm Late, in The Theatre Academy in Helsinki. We talk through his semi-fictionalised self-portrait of monologues about clocks, dreams and the struggles between thought and time, all the while dipping into the history of structured time; the societal needs for, and science behind, these structures. Niko explains how the framework of his performance is inspired by experiences in his immediate life, and how he embodies the act of storytelling from various positions, via different characters and as writer/actor. We talk about time as collaborator, time as antagonist, time as a premise for planned out events, and time as an uncontrollable element of surprise. We discuss shared feelings of ambiguity towards the concept of lateness, and reflect on how internal perception of time does not always align with external expectations.
"We proclaim the environment we act in to be subjective to the core, and believe that it unravels itself differently to each individual...we strive to include the aspect of Time in the context of accessibility, which so far has primarily concerned itself with the dimensions of physical space...In a society that increasingly, constantly and actively demands, steals and feeds off our concentration, energy and Time through demands of activity...The more we sleep, the less we consume scarce resources...we deem the current neoliberal capitalist system that bases itself on endless economic (and other) growth to be both unsustainable, illusionary and naïve in its core."
- excerpts from The Late Party's Explanatory Party Program
This episode contains sound bites from the performance This Is Why I'm Late, recorded as video by Willjam Tigerstedt, ripped and edited by me.
Niko's Instagram
The Theatre Academy Helsinki's website
The Theatre Academy Helsinki's Facebook page
Artist at Work by Bojana Kunst
Momo by Michael Ende
I could not find the exact article I mention, but I found a few other interesting reads:
Emotions & Time
Language & Time
Neuroscience & Time
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I join Tangmo's participatory performance memory field in The Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, and meet her there later to unpack it. Together we talk through the performance from beginning to end, and Tangmo expands on how she developed the project and incorporated multiple collaborations with other Thai artists. She tells about the horrific background of the piece: The Thammasat Massacre in 1976, a student uprising event in Thailand which was violently shut down and almost completely erased from common history, and explains some of the differences to working as a student and artist in Thailand and Finland. We discuss student activism, censorship, and how to be brave in your position as artist and reclaim your voice in your work. We also talk about interactive poetry, audience engagement, and psychological aspects of the architecture of the new academy building.
memory field working group: concept and performance by Ladapha “Tangmo” Sophonkunkit, costume design by Pin Nicha, sound design by fluffypak, graphic design by Suwapat Rodprasert, Chiw Uparsin, Sirada Darikarnonta, patches by Jayda Sakulpoonsook, Naraphat Sakarthornsap, Beam Wong, Maya Jett, Praejeen Kunawong (Jeen Ku), bo nawacharee, Banana blah blah, Julibakerandsummer and Thanakorn Dean Siriraks.
This episode contains audio documentation from the performance recorded by me.
Tangmo's website
Tangmo's Instagram
memory field on Uniarts' website
The Thammasat Massacre
LAPS' website
LAPS' Facebook page
The Academy of Fine Arts' new building
And many of the collaborators:
fluffypak's Instagram
Jayda Sakulpoonsook's Instagram
Naraphat Sakarthornsap's website
Beam Wong's Instagram
Maya Jett's Instagram
Praejeen Kunawong (Jeen Ku)'s Instagram
bo nawacharee's website
Banana blah blah's Instagram
Julibakerandsummer's Instagram
Thanakorn Dean Siriraks' Instagram
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I take a walk on Vallisaari island with Myriam Gras and Cyane Findji, to look at a selection of works from Helsinki Biennial 2023. They have organised a series of guided tours for the exhibition, with focus on more site-specific works. Their project, Navigating Turbulence ~ towards the making of place, also contains a publication and a sound piece. We talk about the island's many functions; military defence, natural habitat for plants and animals, and now international art gallery. We discuss the concept of art biennials and how they affect the places that host them, and we reflect on how a place like the island is used and regulated by many groups with different agendas. We also talk about the sea freezing to ice, how this phenomenon is studied in a lab in Aalto University, and we learn about the existence of science-poetry.
This episode contains excerpts from the sound piece Navigating Turbulence ~ towards the making of place, made by Cyane and Myriam for the boat ride as part of their tours. The project is developed as part of The Art Mediation Forum by ViCCA@Aalto ARTS, one of five curatorial collaborators invited by curator Joasia Krysa and HAM for the Helsinki Biennial 2023.
Full sound piece
Cyane's website
Cyane's Instagram
Myriam's website
Myriam's Instagram
ViCCA's website
Helsinki Biennial's website
Vallisaari's website
Vallisaari on Finnish National Parks' website
Aalto's Ice & Wave Tank
Tim Hammer on LinkedIn
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I visit the Bachelor's Degree Show in The Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, to talk to Sara Rantanen about her sculptural installation that she activates with performances. She tells about self-discoveries in her recent transition from painting to performance art, using her body as a research tool, and we discuss how a change in medium can affect the way you approach not only your work but also yourself. Sara explains how it feels to put herself on display in the gallery, and we talk about vulnerability and trust in the relationship between performer and spectator. We discuss practical and emotional strategies in embodied practice, and reflect on the meditative aspects of endurance. W also talk about our new school building, and how we each have used artistic methods to respond to the architecture and deal with our frustration about it.
Sara's website
Sara's Instagram
BFA exhibition on Kuva/Tila's website
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Verbal Art is back after a short hiatus - I could not keep up with my schedule...
I have my first ever return guest on the podcast, Harriina Räinä, this time I visit her solo exhibition Volatile Shells in Hippolyte Studio in Helsinki (check Verbal Art episode 5 for my first interview with Harriina, in Helsinki Art Museum). She explains how she is continuing her research on relationships between humans and animals, currently in an ongoing three-part exhibition series with oysters as subject matter, and we get to learn a lot about oysters! We discuss how people relate differently to different types of animal remains, the practicality of protecting your soft tissue behind a hard shell, and how reflections on non-human agency is a very human approach to empathy.
Harriina's website
Harriina's Instagram
Hippolyte Gallery's website
Cité internationale des Arts residency
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Sorry, I had to skip this week because my master's thesis deadline took all I had to give! And I had the flu. So episode 37 will come next Wednesday instead.
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I visit Ana Gutieszca in her studio in Helsinki, where she gives us a listen through her electronic music gear, and talks about her love of noise and drum machines. We also take a look at her animal drawings, and she explains how she turns her drawings into sound by using the electric conductivity of graphite and her own custom-built devices. We discuss the aspects of time and flow in music making and performance settings and share anecdotes of stage moments and musical realisations, and Ana tells about her personal history with music, from playing instruments as a child to her discovery of electronic music. We also talk about facilitating culture and running underground venues, and I realise that Ana was a founding member of Third Space (a former mini-venue in Helsinki).
The intro sound of this episode is an excerpt from Ana's track The Book of Repression and the outro sound is her track Instincts.
There are some low bass frequencies in this episode that you will only hear in headphones or with real speakers.
Ana's website
Ana's Instagram
Ana's Soundcloud
Ana on Bandcamp
Humanimal performance videos
Äänitaiteen Seura's website
Äänitaiteen Seura's Instagram
Äänitaiteen Seura's Facebook page
Third Space's website
Third Space's Facebook page
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David Lundström Nabel shows me his very large sculpture in the group exhibition Yhtäkiä - Suhduhnle in Kuva/Tila gallery in Helsinki. David explains how he transported a massive cable drum through the city and into the gallery, and talks us through his assembly of different materials and found objects. We discuss what makes a work masculine, if size matters in the exhibition space, and how the different works affect each other in a group show. We also talk about casting your own body parts, finally finding a purpose for something you have been holding onto, and how positioning of a small element can make a huge difference in the symbolic reading of the whole.
In the background, you can hear the soundscape of two works in the exhibition by Samuel Thompson-Plant and artist duo Bebetton.
David's Instagram
Yhtäkiä - Suhduhnle on Kuva/Tila's website
Yhtäkiä - Suhduhnle on Facebook
Samuel's Website
Samuel's Instagram
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I visit the group exhibition Shall we sleep on this? in Yö Galleria, curated by Chih-Tung Lin. They talk us through the works of the three artists Amanda Lono, Minjee Hwang Kim and Noora Lehtovouri, and tell us all about their curatorial process and decisions of the show. We discuss exhibitions as enduring entities, the non-linear dynamics of group shows, expectations vs. outcome, and how to curate chaos. We reflect on the role of the curator and question why some people hyphenate their title as artist-curator. We talk about what methods to employ when embodying that position, and Chih-Tung explains how they have been writing a curator-diary through this project and used the text in the exhibition to create transparency. We also get into the emotional challenges of the job, and discuss social skills, self-awareness, and the noble art of appropriate communication.
Chih-Tung's website
Chih-Tung's Instagram
Chih-Tung's Facebook profile
Minjee's website
Minjee's Instagram
Noora's website
Noora's Instagram
Amanda's website
Amanda's Instagram
Shall we sleep on this? on Facebook
Yö's website
Yö's Facebook page
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I visit Helsinki Art Museum (HAM) again, this time to see Laura Dahlberg's new sci-fi inspired solo exhibition Abiotic Variables feat. Alien Babies. Laura explains how she has used silicone to cast soft robots, and how she learned to use air as a mechanic tool. We also get to know about the crazy, lively material called liquid crystal polymer, and Laura tells the story of how she got to develop her artwork in a science lab together with PhD researchers who study the material for other applications. We discuss the future of robots and empathy, the agency of inanimate materials, and Laura tells about the emotional aspects of birthing alien art babies and giving them up for adoption. We also talk about aesthetic tropes of science fiction, and how an exhibition space can become an other-worldly experience with the use of simple ambient tools.
Laura's website
Laura's Instagram
Abiotic Variables feat. Alien Babies in Helsingin Sanomat
HAM's website
Helsinki Hacklab's website
Tampere University Chemistry Lab's Instagram
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I meet Clément Beraud in Helsinki Art Museum (HAM) where he works as exhibition technician. He talks us through the installation of selected works from Helsinki Biennial, explains the practical considerations and tells about what can go wrong in the long, delicate process of transport and re-assembly. We get an insight into the greater ecology of a large gallery and all the people involved in the production of an exhibition, and how all the different roles approach common objectives with different agendas and priorities. We talk about the absurdity of a regular object becoming a sacred artefact when put on display, and how new value and rules are applied to it in an instant when it enters the gallery space. Clément explains about the practical aspects of his job, working as a technician in many different museums and galleries around Helsinki, and how potential safety hazards and safety practices are handled. We also discuss issues of the financial structures of the art world, and some of the challenges leading to artists making careers of their side-gigs such as technician positions.
There was some electrical interference making noise on the recording, which I have cleaned and removed as much as I could without making our voices too strange. It is not constant throughout the episode! When we walk & talk through the exhibition the soundscape is fine and you can hear the sound of the artworks.
Clément's website
Clément's Instagram
Technicians' group exhibition in Gallery Pallas
HAM's website
Helsinki Biennial's website
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In this second, final part of my self-reflective solo episode, I continue to explain about my current master's thesis project: a site-specific sound art piece on cassette tape, titled The Silence of Sea Tower. I reminisce on all the challenges and wonders I have come across during this year-long engagement, talk about how this whole thing in many ways feels like one big puzzle I am trying to piece together, and I reflect on how it is like an investigation with clues and surprises and red threads. I get very poetic about the writing process and all the similarities between the sound composition and the written text, and I get into the technical details and my methods of both those processes. I also share my struggles with exhaustion and loneliness, and contemplate whether I am resting or procrastinating when I am not working. I try to explain how this auto-fictional work and isolated lifestyle has blurred the lines between fiction and reality, and how I might be performing the sound of my everyday life without realising it. In this chapter I also expand on the performance aspect of the work, a concert iteration titled Narrative Noise performed on an orchestra of old ghettoblasters, and reveal what my future plans are in that direction.
For inquiries about purchasing The Silence of Sea Tower on cassette tape, send an email to [email protected]
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For this milestone episode I thought it was a good time to check in with myself, and try another round of interviewing myself - exactly one year since the first attempt. And when I talk to myself we never end, so this is a conceptual episode in several chapters. I did two long interviews with myself in my studio in Helsinki, one in the daytime and one in the middle of the night, and then I edited parts of these recordings together as one long conversation - it ended up so long that I had to divide it into several episodes, so here is the first part of a long talk between me, myself and I about our master's thesis project The Silence of Sea Tower, an ambient noise sound art project that I self-published on cassette tape this Spring.
In this chapter I invite you into the magical realism of my studio, where I have been living and recording the sound of my surroundings the last year. I discuss the myth of neutral, objective field recording, the personality traits of kitchen appliances and the voices of tube lights, and reflect on my own role as performer in my everyday soundscape. I also explain how it feels to live in secrecy in my workspace, how I navigate the shared sounding space of the building, and how my way of listening to myself and my surroundings has changed during this project.
For inquiries about purchasing The Silence of Sea Tower on cassette tape, send an email to [email protected]
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I meet Laura Lowe in her studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, to look at her very large paintings of gloomy yet shiny, abstract landscapes. We discuss when a painting is dead or alive, the decay and resurrection of landscape painting in the era of climate change, and Laura tells how she went from self-taught artist to alchemist in the paint lab. She describes the technical process of working with structural colour (and what that even is), the difference to painting and sculpting a picture, and she tells about her long experimental process of creating iridescent paint and working with light-reflection. We talk about the practical aspects of scaling up and working from tiny samples to large canvases, and how the exhibition space affects the artwork. Laura also explains how to turn roadkill into taxidermy sculptures, and we talk a bit about coal.
Laura's website
Laura's Instagram
Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki's website
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