ARS HAME 09, Riihimaki, Finland

Being Home

As soon as you begin your return journey, you just want to be home. The train journey to the airport was sad – i can’t think of a better word, it was dark, cold and raining for the first time during my stay. I listened to my brash english music on my ipod and sat on a hard plastic chair in Tampere airport, waiting, and feeling very distant, physically and mentally from England.

There i was in Stansted airport again, as if no time had passed since i was last there. It was 1am, and people were asleep across benches and on the floor like nomads with all their belongings being used as pillows and blankets. The entire airport was quiet and sleepy – people were just waiting for their connecting flights or national express coaches like me, filling the time.

I have been home for a week and a half now. There has been plenty to keep me busy; my running is getting better (thanks to Lisa’s tips), im working in my sketchbook more, reading and researching about other artists and seriously thinking about performance art and how this can move my practice forward. Last weekend i went to the Art Book sale at the Whitechapel and serendipitously attended a lecture by Claire Doherty about Situation Specific art, which was incredibly academic, and therefore i loved it (i am an art geek). I have a few things to work towards; Christmas Open Studios, works to send to Riitta and mainly a group show at Landguard Fort in August on the theme of “readiness” or “waiting”, something that requires a lot of research and sensitivity. Performance art is very much on my mind, and feels like the most immediate medium to express most of my ideas. I never expected the Ars Hame to cause such an advancement in my practice, i have a lot to be thankful for.

But the hard thing is that i miss Finland; its crisp autumn air, the space, luminous light and sensitive people very much. I miss being a full time artist and being surrounded constantly by other creative types. Everyone in England is so loud, and they mostly are saying meaningless things. In Finland, as i did not speak the language, things were going on around me and i could tune out and stay focused. Here, i can hear everything – and it is very distracting. There is no sensitivity or sincerity in all these loud words being spoken at me. I miss the sincerity an awful lot.

Im not moaning, honest – i just now know what i am missing, and i want it back.

Tuesday – My last day in Finland

We turned a different way out of the road this time, and Edwina took me to the side of Riihimaki that i had not been to yet; i am amazed how far this town spans. We were heading towards the Glass Factory and Museum, the trade that Riihimaki is, or at least was best known for. First we stopped off at Gary and Eeva’s house, they live in one of the original houses built for the glass factory workers and this whole district was idyllic. Autumn is coming, the air is cold and leaves are falling rapidly, but we sat outside in our coats drinking tea, eating cake and talking about the town’s relationship with art and artists. It looks to be very important that artists contribute something to the town in order to get along smoothly, often running workshops for example or sitting on a committee.

Gary, who is a photographer, took us to his studio across the road to show us some photos that he’s entering into competition. Gary is a self-employed artist, and being in his studio, talking about his schedule, funding and residencies made me want to be an artist living in Finland. I remember standing there, just feeling this urge, or determination to “be an artist“, always.

We then went on to the Glass Museum to look around the exhibition and had lunch. I felt really sad and time was precious, i had literally hours left of this non-reality that i had been enjoying so much over these past two weeks in Finland.

Edwina took me to the old glass factory, it is mostly abandoned apart from a few studios and storage. We explored the derelict buildings of the factory, peeping through broken windows, squeezing through unlocked doors, gazing at huge empty spaces and trampling through long grass to reach further hidden buildings. In England, you could never get access to such spaces, but for us, this was an abandoned adventure playground. There were fragments of glass all over the place, and old orders and equipment, and a half built canoe in one space. Light flooded in through cracks in the wood, although most spaces remained hidden from us as we did not have a torch.

I want to go back to the glass factory, in the snow, and explore it for days, making sense of the echoing rooms and forgotten fragments.

It clouded over – threatening rain, and we were tired, not just from all the running around of that day, but from the intensity of the whole Art Week…

Its time to go home.

But I have to come back, soon.

I took the train to Turenki as after Friday’s seminar, Riitta had invited me over to her gallery with the possibility of making some Textile pieces for her to show.

It was a really enjoyable afternoon, and one that i could not had of predicted before i came to Finland. Riitta showed me round her gallery space (which was built as a cinema in the 1960s), talked about the work she had there and some Japanese students that had stayed with her, and showed me the cinema space where they hold performances and fashion shows etc. I had never seen anything like it, there was so much to look at.

We ate warm apple strudel, and i looked through a massive box of 6×4 photographs that another artist had taken whilst he travelled around Lapland. The box invited me to “take any if you want to”, so i now have a nice collection of of desolate scenes of Finnish landscape, only occasionally punctuated by a reindeer herder’s hut.

Riitta showed me around the town; the lake where they go ice swimming, a tiny old cottage that they had bought and call their “grandmothers cottage” with a bed and stove and spinning wheel in, and a vitorian photograph of the previous owners which i thought was a little spooky. The house also had an old sauna down the bottom of the garden which still works, it was charming in its ricketiness. Last of all Riitta took me to a huge 1930’s house they had bought near the sugar factory which they have just started converting into a place for artist residencies and workshops… and then it was time to catch my train back to Riihimaki with the promise that i would send Riitta some work in the post ready for a show in November.

What a whimsical little Sunday afternoon! Perfect!

Things seem to be coming to a close and i wish they weren’t, but the reality is that i could not maintain this pace of art for much longer. People are starting to go home, and i have done all of my performances / events. My line drawing this evening was quieter, but really slick in its presentation i felt, and i liked the drawing more this time as the dust had settled in a very sensitive way. (i would load photos but i have used up all my computer memory with the millions of photos that i have already taken).

Tomorrow we’ll clear the space where we have been working over the past week, and im visiting a gallery in a nearby town. In the next few days i will walk around Riihimaki to take photographs of the short tower blocks they seem to have here (i think their shortness is due to building reg’s), anyway, a lot of architecture has caught my attention and now i have the time to work out why.

I catch myself looking into empty apartments around the town and thinking “yes, i could be happy living there…”

“The Strength of Art” Seminar

I woke up early, but not as stressed as i was expecting to be. Today was the “Strength of Art” seminar for the Ars Hame at the Art Museum where i was presenting a paper. I have been waiting for this day for months:hours of agonising over what i should say and why, piles of books read, word documents written and rewritten…

I liked the audience very much, in fact i like Finn’s very much… they seem very quiet but you are aware that a lot is going on in their minds, and when they say something, it is very considered and sincere. I prefer this to the British way where we just seem say everything but can sometimes mean very little.

The majority of the seminar was in Finnish, so it was lost on me, Lisa Torell was the only other artist speaking in English. I enjoy only being aware what is happening 90% of the time, its like i can tune out and occupy my own thoughts whilst the rest of the world is busy around me.

I spoke for 40 minutes about my practice, and how traces and spaces can inform this, working site responsively and the importance of process in my drawing. There are always things that you forget to say, but i was careful to go slowly as English is some Finn’s third language – i thought it better to say a little that was meaningful rather than a lot which was impenetrable.

The event as a whole was interesting, i ofcourse enjoyed Lisa’s presentation about form, context and spaces and how we interpret such situations through language. The event raised discussion and awareness of a town’s responsibility to its community and how we respond to it.

The only event that i now need to focus on is my Line Drawing performance tomorrow evening. I am so amused that two weeks ago i was petrified by the thought of doing “performance” art and that now it seems to be the most natural and immediate medium for me.