Sally Timmons (IE) works and lives in Dublin.
Comments closedTag: AiR
Emma Houlihan (IE) works and lives in Dublin.
Comments closedCamila Rocha
A lot has happened to me in Vaasa, a lot about the past.
I discovered that one part of my family in Brazil originally comes from Venice, at the very moment Hüseyin is sending four traditional wooden barns to Venice and I am getting one, the oldest one from the Laihia region, for my exhibition at the Platform Gallery in Vaasa.
Making a home abroad from an old barn, which once sheltered the animals and perhaps the wheat. Kirsi, barn mama, has shown me the old “Money Tree” in the region, which was once on Finnish Mark coins.
I look at the old photographs of my grandparent’s parents from Venice as the anonymous people in the postcards found in an antique shop.
Here I am in the loft of the abandoned soap-factory, listening to Caetano Veloso’s exile song “London, London” and the ice is melting down.
Camila Rocha is a Brasilian artist, based in Istanbul.
Comments closed
Vaasa by night
The works of Romanian artist Dan Acostioaei usually investigate the impact of consumerism and global ideologies on the transition and the social relations in Romania.
During his two-month residency in Vaasa, Acostioaei has undertaken a project in which he has systematically recorded, by means of photography and video, various elements of the city seeking to uncover its identity and, at the same time, challenge the mediums’ ability to reveal those signs in the built environment that shape peoples’ sense of belonging. The resulting body of work provides a spectacular viewpoint over a liminal place and offers a meditative portrait of a specific
location. These nocturnal images present a subtle vision of key aspects of Vaasa’s identity in a surprising way that mirrors an integrated formal, conceptual, and documentary significance.
More about Dan Acostioaei
Comments closed
Dragos Alexandrescu
Through a collaboration with gallery Vector in Iasi, Romania, Dragos Alexandrescu stayed at Platform’s residency during September and October 2005. He participated in MOPE 05 and realized an individual project, ‘Between’. A photo studio was set up in the gallery and through a flyer he invited people to come and have their photograph taken. As a closing-up of the project, the people could come and get a copy of their photos. The idea of the project was to establish a link between the audience and Platform, between the audience and the process itself of making art.
Comments closed
Ryan Stec
“Mixed Tape” is the result of a curatorial/artist residency I undertook in Vaasa, Finland at Platform Gallery and Artist Association. During this time I spent extensive time doing research at both of the Finnish Av-Arkki and Swedish FilmForm video art distributors, visiting as many artist-run and contemporary spaces as I could, and meeting with artists from around Finland and Sweden.
The performance/exhibition that resulted was a unique video art presentation where, as a curator and technician, I played a mediating role in the viewers’ experience, and fused a contemporary VJ performance (during the opening) with a traditional screening for the exhibition period. This project was a continuation of my interest in the concept of plurality of perspectives and viewing experiences, and challenges the notion of a work of art being finite and complete. Instead Mixed Tape presented the idea that works of art are evolving and changing contstantly. This presentation also pushed the boundaries of a curators role by beyond simply recontextualizing the video works and fusing them with each other to create a exhibition which was quite different from the sum of its individual works.
Ryan Stec
Ryan Stec is a Canadian artist based in Ottawa and was the first artist-in-residence at Platform in September 2004.
For the duration of the exhibition a table top matching the gallery dimensions was installed into the gallery. Inset into this surface was a slotcar racetrack made by Tyco, a lap counter and two speed regulators for each racing car.
The Tyco track had been selected for its construction ratio of 1:87. Most other producers of racetracks favor a ratio of 1:32, resulting in larger cars that are easier for children to pick up and hold. These larger cars are also more durable – a feature that is important to the children who are the main consumers of these products.
Matchbox, the classic producer of model cars (and incidentally, along with Tyco, a subsidiary of Mattel) also produces a track with a 1:87 ratio. Such a ratio helps participants to identify with the drivers of the cars (who can also be controlled by the participants), and in this way to become more integrated into the race. The aim of the game contained within the sculpture is, more or less, to drive around in circles. The lap counter indicates how many laps have been completed and resets itself to zero after the completion of 50 laps. Although the general aim is to clock as many laps as possible as fast as possible, too much speed, particularly in corner situations, may result in the car spinning out as it loses contact with the racetrack.
Comments closed
Petra Lindholm | 20.10–11.11.2001
Petra Lindholm ‘s video is located in a flat. Nobody is at home. The images are still and harmonically composed, the foundation being in the study of light and colour usually connected with painting and photography. Petra Lindholm has also composed the soundtrack, which constructs various emotional layers together with the images. The video is accompanied by a series of photographs.
The sun is the great star. Nothing goes on. Days pass by. Someone is singing a song somewhere. One moment it is far in the background, another too close. The sky outside is never the same. The room yearns for sunlight. The pictures of the rooms were never shot. They are in the mind of someone. She thinks of these rooms while beeing away. She stays with that thought during the day. Considering her life and the plants by the window, how they will manage without water for so long. There is simultaneously striving and withdrawal in the image. The classical sign for uncertainty: two steps forward and one back. That is formed in the audiotrack, which knows no hurry, single sounds creep in to rest. The telephone rings. At the first signal it is afternoon, by the last the day has darkened: she has given up and left the day before, and missed the call she waited for.
Klaus Jörres | 20.9–14.10.2001
For the duration of the exhibition a table top matching the gallery dimensions was installed into the gallery. Inset into this surface was a slotcar racetrack made by Tyco, a lap counter and two speed regulators for each racing car.
The Tyco track had been selected for its construction ratio of 1:87. Most other producers of racetracks favor a ratio of 1:32, resulting in larger cars that are easier for children to pick up and hold. These larger cars are also more durable – a feature that is important to the children who are the main consumers of these products.
Matchbox, the classic producer of model cars (and incidentally, along with Tyco, a subsidiary of Mattel) also produces a track with a 1:87 ratio. Such a ratio helps participants to identify with the drivers of the cars (who can also be controlled by the participants), and in this way to become more integrated into the race. The aim of the game contained within the sculpture is, more or less, to drive around in circles. The lap counter indicates how many laps have been completed and resets itself to zero after the completion of 50 laps. Although the general aim is to clock as many laps as possible as fast as possible, too much speed, particularly in corner situations, may result in the car spinning out as it loses contact with the racetrack.
Comments closed