Platform r.f. Posts

Death’s impact reverberates universally across all living beings. When the soul departs, the body transforms into mere substance. What remains after the body’s incineration?

“Absence” by Yui Yamamoto stands as a captivating installation that delves into themes of death, mourning, and the rituals surrounding the departed. Through this work, Yamamoto prompts viewers to engage with the installation, inviting reflection on the passage of time.

Hailing from Japan, Yui Yamamoto is an artist based in London, drawing from a diverse background encompassing social sciences, performance art, and design. Her multidisciplinary approach encompasses live performances, installations, and site-responsive creations. As an East Asian woman, she challenges traditional submissive portrayals, projecting both herself and her objects as expressions of existence through performance.

This installation’s genesis stems from personal experiences of loss within the family and the subsequent mourning. Conceived during a two-month residency in Vaasa, a peripheral town on Finland’s west coast, the project occupies the project space of the Platform rf association. This space, located on Vasa’s culturally vibrant street, is transformed into a ceremonial setting through meticulous white paintwork, setting the tone for the visitors.

The installation’s birth aligns with Japan’s Obon festival, a time for remembrance, coinciding with Vaasa’s Night of the Arts. Inspired by both events and a family member’s passing, Yamamoto constructs a ceremonial space, using symbolic elements like caskets, ash, fire, and hourglasses to explore her confrontation with loss.

Nearly 30 paper bowls, resembling hourglasses, dangle from the ceiling, releasing a delicate stream of salt to accumulate on the floor below. This imagery symbolizes fragility and the fleeting nature of time. A wooden coffin with a tactile, raw exterior sits nearby, filled with plaster-molded leaves and twigs, reminiscent of bone fragments left after cremation.

Yamamoto’s meticulousnes extends to the details, where controlled burns enhance the sense of ceremonial cremation on both the paper bowls and the coffin. The pervasive scent of fire seems to permeate the room, amplifying the experience.

The artist’s foundation in performance and social sciences is evident in the engagement she fosters. Each visitor becomes an active participant, pouring salt into the hanging bowls, observing its descent. The strategic placement of the coffin guides natural movement through the space, while the paper bowls imbue an ethereal, floating ambiance.

Material choices—putty for the coffin’s stone-like appearance and plaster for bone fragments—underscore Yamamoto’s careful consideration.

The installation’s impact becomes evident as visitors shed their reserve, interacting with and discussing the work. The combination of tactile engagement and thought-provoking content prompts emotional responses. As one spectator put it, “Time stops and moves very fast at the same time in here.”

Notably, parallels can be drawn to Japanese artist Matoi Yamamoto, who crafts intricate installations from salt in tribute to his deceased sister. His work, like Yui Yamamoto’s, explores healing through art.

Strengths of “Absence” lie in its elegant simplicity, meticulous arrangement, and the depth found within the details. It flourishes as visitors infuse life into the installation, while minor disruptions in the room’s ambiance serve as its only weakness.

Despite a constrained timeline and unfamiliarity with the Art Night event, Yui Yamamoto succeeds in crafting an exquisite, inclusive masterpiece that resonates deeply with visitors.

In summation, “Absence” by Yui Yamamoto invites viewers to contemplate the profound impact of death, creating an immersive experience that bridges personal reflection with shared emotions.

Text: Jenni Österlund

Pictures: Jonny Huggare Smeds

“absence” for Night of the Arts 10.8. 2023

Death comes equally to every living being. When one’s soul is gone, the body is just a substance. When the body is burned, what remains? Using symbolic items such as casket, burnt papers, and ashes, Yamamoto explores her view of facing the loss. Inspired by the death of her own family and the ceremonial activities, the artist transforms Platform to the ceremonial space for those who are not here.

In the night of arts, the artist invites you to the space of the absence.

“Born in Japan, Yui Yamamoto is a London based artist with a background in Social Science and Performance Art and Design. Her multidisciplinary art practice includes live performance, installation, and site-responsive work. Positioning herself as an East Asian Female whose characters are often seen as submissive, she projects herself as the passive and domesticated objects. Using performance as a central medium, the artist helps herself and objects to express their existence at maximum.”

Thursday/ Torsdag / Torstai 10.8 18.00-21.00

Kyrkoesplanaden 20 D

Kirkkopuistikko 20 D

Free entry! Welcome!

Pictures: Jacob Hagman

The thought that fashion applies to city planning amuses me. I’ve never thought that way about the streets. I walk them everyday getting here and there, thinking if they are busy, sunny, pleasant, quiet, etc. but it never occurred to me that some streets are more in vogue than others. Apparently boulevards are urban landscape artefacts. Doesn’t feel that way in Vaasa though, I keep spotting these green corridors all over the city. I like them. When I cross the street and get on one of those neat paths in between the regimented trees, it makes me think that I have been transported to a strange island, floating in some separate realm with its own time. I notice how my pace slows down and my body relaxes. Feels like I am invisible. In a good way.

Ieva Grigelionyte, a current artist in residence at Platform, invites you to a conceptual tasting session. Over a couple of weeks in Vaasa, she has developed a site-specific menu that draws attention to the wide streets and the tree-lined pedestrian islands on them. Carefully curated bites will reflect on the fragments of the urban landscape, something we encounter everyday and yet rarely notice. Like a moment spent waiting for a traffic light to turn green or a generous tree canopy providing you shade on a sunny summer day. 

Ieva is Scotland-based artist who often works with the idea of edible landscapes. In her practice she uses a wide range of methods and techniques from foraging, ice cream making, fermenting, baking, sculpting, set designing and a few more.

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ODD ONE OUT 2024

It is with great pleasure that we announce the Open Call for ODD ONE OUT Art Residencies, hosted by Platform in 2024.

 We understand that as artists, there is often that one dream project—your creative magnum opus—that has remained elusive, trapped within the confines of the artistic career. 

The ODD ONE OUT Art Residency, scheduled for 2024, has been crafted to bring this long-awaited dream project to life. It is an invitation to break free from convention and embrace the unconventional, allowing your artistic vision to flourish and transcend previously uncharted territories.

This is the opportunity where you don’t have to shape your practice based on the request of a gallery, funding, or theme. This is the moment to express your true artistic vision. Let the ODD ONE OUT!

We can’t wait to help you make it come alive!

Platform is an art organization based in Vasa, a relatively peripheral Finnish town. We run an art space and a residency to offer live experiences of different perspectives in a location where this would otherwise be limited. 

We usually work with an annual theme that we also encourage our guest artists to examine. For 2023 residencies we asked the artist to reflect on the artist’s role, the practice of the artist and the relevance of art work/art works. So far the question has led to a lot of interesting discussions and we can confirm our suspicion: art and working with art is still relevant in today’s society. 

We have now established the significance of art; however, for the upcoming 2024 residency, our intention is to delve deeper. Through the implementation of the Odd one Out residency, we want to provide artists with the opportunity to explore and discover the aspects that hold relevance to their individual artistry, thereby fostering a sense of relevance within the surrounding environment. By participating in the Odd one Out residency, we offer dedicated time for artists to realize their visionary projects, which hold relevance either to their personal artistic journey or to the progression of their artistic pursuits. 

Jenni: “ I believe this is a great opportunity for the artist to express themselves. As artists we are in some range shaped by the influence of galleries, fundings or even surrounding communities. This is your opportunity to let out your artistic madness and I can’t wait to see it!”

Johan: “The best thing with hosting a residency is that I get to walk around with the artists and hear their thoughts. Often these thoughts and ideas are put together like a big clay blob. I think it is the result of a great ability to see patterns and the gig situation that many artists end up living in.

I don’t want Platform’s residency to be another lump that artists need to smack on the blob. I’d rather want them to use the time to sculpt, cut and squeeze in peace.”

We offer

 Accommodation, travel expenses (one return trip, cheapest possible) and a working grant (based on per diem, approx. 300 € per week). We also offer a small production budget of 1000 €, which the artist may reimburse by presenting original receipts of purchases, specifically connected to the project produced during the residency. The apartment is located near the city center in Vaasa. There is a bike, a set of tools and equipment available for the artist. There is wireless broadband access in the apartment. Platform does not at the moment house a studio, however a project space in the city center is available. The planned projects have to take this into account, space can be rented or borrowed if needed for the realization of the project and has to be negotiated in advance. The artist is given a contact person who is in charge of necessary arrangements, if any additional assistance is needed it has to be agreed upon well in advance.

We ask the artist to realize a project, which can be presented either during the residency or at a later stage. The artist is expected to give a public talk, performance or workshop about his/her/their work or an introduction to themselves at the beginning of the residency. We expect the artist to be able to communicate in English, Swedish or Finnish. We require the artist to spend at least 80% of the residency’s duration in Vaasa and the working grant is proportional to days spent in Vaasa. The artists are required to submit documentation of the produced project to Platform, as well as press release / information text / informal report or equivalent.

Application procedure

Please follow these instructions closely. Applications not following these requirements will not be considered. We require the artist to send a digital application to platform.rf@gmail.com with the subject ‘Residency Application 2024’ by the 30th of June 2023. The application should be one PDF document with your full name as the title of the document. Don’t paste any relevant information in the email that is not part of the PDF.

Please include the following in the PDF:

-An informal project plan OR motivation letter, max 1 page. The aim of the letter should be describing the kind of project you imagine doing in Vaasa, your motivation to apply for this residency and your expectations. The project plan should also include your preferred period of time, and state if the time period is relevant for the project as well as clearly state what time/ times that aren’t suitable.

We are looking for artists that can stay up to 3 months, but 1-2 months requests will also be considered. 

-Descriptions and images of 5 projects or art works. For videos, please add direct links to websites in the PDF.

-A CV of max two pages, including: name, date and place of birth, current location as well as email and phone number.

The application shall occupy no more than 12 pages and 5 mb. The board of Platform will make the selection. All artists will receive a notification by the end of September 2023. The board is under no obligation to justify the selection. If you have questions about the residency please ask them well before the deadline.

 Best

Platform Team

Jenni, Johan, Geir, Sara, Zarah, Niklas and Alexandra

PLATFORM LIVE
25.5
19.00
Kyrkoesplanaden 20 D

Buxbom & Palmer

VVUNDER – A Two-for-One Artist Talk + performance

In this presentation, we will take a closer look at the artistic work of Bella da Silva Buxbom and Martin Palmer, both individually and in collaboration.

The artists will show examples and discuss some of the basic ideas and frameworks for their work, which include theories about the open work (opera aperta), chance and interdisciplinary collaborations, working with one foot in the underground and the other in art institutions, translatability, truthfulness, sound art and intuition. The presentation will contain performative elements and end with an improvised sound work.

Martin Palmer and Bella da Silva Buxbom lives and works in Trondheim, Norway. They are educated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Trondheim. Buxbom & Palmer have been working together since 2017.

Open studio event featuring the work of Gael Maski Kusa Kusa. Maski has been an artist-in-residency and has been working on a project titled “AIR”.

Explore Kusa Kusa’s creative process and get a glimpse into the artist’s world.

” After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kinshasa, GAEL MASKI graduated from higher education in painting in 2013. He draws the language of his artistic universe from his personal history. Being a survivor of the war that struck the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997, where he lost his father, a soldier who died at the front. He arrived in the capital of the country where he tried to find his bearings, how to grow in a post-war society. He became interested in art very early on as a way for him to reconnect his story with that of his society and thus rebuild a peaceful universe.
His work begins in society, the projects he carries out are projects carried out with communities, neighborhoods and families. It all starts with contact with people.
Maski has especially worked a lot with “the most deprived” who live in slums or in difficult conditions but who manage to survive in precarious realities thanks to their mental strength. Thus stories and personal memory feed the meaning of his work. In his work he questions the hierarchy of social memory.
With his camera as a means of collecting data in a fragmented way and through collage he creates both realistic and surreal worlds that eventually appear as a dream universe that serves as a moral remedy for any viewer who needs to fill an inner void and make a fresh start. Thus the word “poor” or “refugee” is used in his work as a metaphor that designates anyone in search of inner well-being.”