We had a press meeting at 10am in the old power station which is acting as the center for the Art Week. Most of the meeting was in Finnish, so i didn’t understand much, but was too busy being in awe of this huge space. I was introduced to the group and met Sirpa and Satu, and then said a few words about what i was hoping to do here, bearing in mind that i had been in Finland for less that 12 hours at this point. Afterwards a lady came up to speak to me, she was really enthusiastic about my line drawing and performance, which was touching, afterwards Edwina told me that she was from the press, and somehow i found that even more touching.
At 2.30pm we got the key to the space where i will be working. This was the first time that Edwina or myself had been into the space, and we explored the rooms with enthusiasm. There is one main space, with smaller rooms off of it, and some stairs that don’t lead anywhere. I said the space felt like a hospital because it was incredibly clean and subtle in its colour – mostly blues and grays, Edwina said that this is typical Finnish. I believe that that space used to be an insurance firm or something similar, there are marks on the floor where the desks used to be, and scratches on the floor from where someone used to sit on their swivel office chair. I liked these quiet traces of a previous use very much, my favorites were some dusty, grubby marks on the wall where some pictures or certificates had previously hung. These traces are very much what my graphite line drawings are inspired by; the subtle traces that humans leave on architecture as the result of repetitive activity.
At 5pm we went to a flea market / 2nd hand shop / junk yard. I dont know how i had previously survived as an Artist without it – everything i ever needed was here, and everything that i didn’t was too; doors, sinks, window frames, glass, sewing machines, bits of metal, mirrors, shoelaces, sledges, skis, crockery, spinning wheels… Im pretty sure that i will be visiting again.
We rounded the day off by going to a private view in the next town, at Hyvinkaan Taidemuseo where there was a retrospective of Jani Leinonen’s drawings, paintings and interventions (although he is only 31). It felt very much like Pop Art and was concerned with consumer culture – i liked his interventions the most, for example his Art Supermarket and a project where he painted over old pictures the public had found in their attics, making them into contemporary works of art and selling them on for a lot of euro’s.
I am in the right frame of mind to make my own work now – there is plenty to do, and have the Opening Party to look forward to tomorrow.
