Woke up around eight this morning and got the camera set-up to video the orange blind. It was a bit overcast outside although I still waited patiently for the light to shine through the window. I waited an hour and then some faint ripple of action started to happen. This didn’t last long and five minutes into recording the light seemed to fade. I lay in bed watching and waiting, half an hour later nothing. I decided to leave the video recording until the end of the tape and fell back to sleep. Not a good day for filming so I will try again in the morning. After a disappointing start to my day we drove into town to grab a few things and on the way back to the house we came across a sign for an art exhibition. Anna seemed surprised and warned me not to build my hopes up regarding the quality of the work.
Galleria Kohina appears to be located in a wooden house which I later find out is also used as a theatre. The exhibition is a group show and I recognised one of the artists, Tero Nauha who will also be performing at Gallery Jangva, Helsinki at Night of the Arts. Tero’s work is displayed on a small DVD screen and he appears to be dancing with himself to a different tune. Each dance is cropped within a third of the frame. I was intrigued and repulsed by another performance to camera piece titled Korea-Finland by Hyun Joo Min (www.hyunjoomin.com). Her head and shoulders are in shot and she proceeds to eat foods associated with Finland and Korea. For example to be more Finnish she eats sausage and drinks cider, to be more Korean she eats whole raw chillies. The result is sexual and grotesque. The video was shown on a monitor and blacked out by tarpaulin. I liked the simple presentation of the work with the sheet pulled slightly back revealing a peek into the space. It was good to see work by other artists and I enjoyed the performance to camera pieces. Encouraging to see strong work being made and exhibited in unexpected places.
