Verbal Art

Jenni Haili takes me on a historical photography tour through the eyes of her great-great-aunt Fanny and her great-aunt Signe, two women from each side of her family tree and each side of Finland, who both left their home at a young age in the beginning of the 20th century and moved to America. Jenni has researched their relocations and travelled in their footsteps, visualising their lives in an i...

I visit [of sound] sonic arts exhibition by Äänen Lumo in Oksasenkatu 11 gallery in Helsinki, for an all-round chat with one of the artists, Marloes van Son, and one of the curators, Minerva Juolahti. From each their perspective, they tell me about the enduring process from open call through pre-production to installation, and finally observing the audience's meeting with the works. We talk about...

I talk with Eetu Vekki and Corinne Mustonen about the interdisciplinary exhibition and performance collaboration Ex Machina in The Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki's gallery Kuva/Tila. We sit in the middle of Eetu's sculptural light installation of AI-produced images engraved into paper, and we are immersed in a soundscape by Murrettumeri. In a series of dance performances, Corinne interpreted Eet...

I meet three dancers in The Theatre Academy Helsinki, for a chat about their joint graduation show in the master's programme of dance. We discuss performance vs. dance, when improvisation turns into choreography, and how to study dance without dancing. They explain how they collectively self-produced this show, we discuss what it means to collaborate with sound- and light designers as co-authors,...

I am back in Asbestos gallery in Helsinki for Jere Suontausta's solo exhibition Imponderabilia , consisting of a series of light-sculptures made of old cookie cutters and other recycled metal items. We have a long talk about working with light: acting as a technician or an artist, using light as a material for sculptural and spatial artworks or as a performance method, light as a collaborative too...

Can you talk about drawings for almost two hours? Yes, you can! Philip Lernhammar and Hilda Kahra show me a selection of drawings from their previous duo exhibition Outside was a circle , where they presented a combined collection of almost 80 drawings. We talk about all aspects of this fundamental medium: what to draw, where to draw, how to draw, what to draw on, and what to do with the drawings...

For this episode I visited two venues in Helsinki: Asbestos Art Space, for an exhibition interview, and Musta Kissa bar, for Irish folk music jam. Eoin O'Dowd is a visual artist and musician, and he talks us through his exhibition Behind the Walls Tickling the Bricks while educating us on Irish culture, and explaining how he connects to his homeland from abroad. We get to know about religious infl...

Fru Amager hosts me for a late-night visit in her work studio in Amager, as we have a chat about working in festive environments and inventing visual identities for different types of clients, from night clubs to mainstream brands. We talk about what it means to create an atmosphere and understand the party as a social installation, and we get a look behind the scene of (a part of) Copenhagen's ni...

In the underground movie theatre Byens Lys, in freetown Christiania in Copenhagen, I meet Michel Winckler-Krog for a talk about VJing. We discuss the cabaret Maskefald that he has made visuals for, he tells about the many kinds of projects and different approaches his career entails, and we reflect on the fact that a lot of AV-people we know are moving from party-productions to theatre work. We al...

Kim Klevin and I talk all about tattoos, while Kim tattoos me! We talk about exhibiting on walls vs. on people's skin, and what to do when your taste changes and you regret one of the artworks you carry around. We look through his sketchbook, talk about drawing cartoons and inventing mutated doomsday animals, and Kim tells about his work as an illustrator, making posters and other drawing-commissi...

Local legend Trine Trash invites me into her home in Copenhagen, to show me her instruments and talk about dedicating your life to art. She explains how her (a)typical work-week looks, tells tales from a life on stage, and reflect on how the job changed with pandemic restrictions. Trine also tells the story of how she became Trine Trash, and we discuss what it means to create a life and career aro...

Lotta Hurnanen takes me on an excursion to two of her special outdoor spots in Helsinki. We talk about experimental photography techniques, and leaving your film or prints outdoors for up to several weeks to let nature work its wonders. We sit in a ditch next to a highway, where Lotta let her film rolls soak in a little stream of water, in order to make psychedelic landscape photography. Afterward...

Ostaritutkimuksia - Shopping Mall Investigations is an artistic research project by Salla Valle and Miina Pohjolainen, exploring the history and future of shopping centres in Helsinki. We meet in Konala, a northern suburb of Helsinki, where they have turned an old dentist clinic in a 1960s shopping arcade into a temporary art space. We talk about the sociocultural significance of shopping centres...

In a small wooden shed by a football field, on an island in Helsinki, Tommi Pasanen and Toivo Heinimäki tell me about their pop-up exhibition Laajasalo Summer Exhibition . They took over the public space for a weekend in July 2022, where they painted the shed and installed a collection of paintings and photographs to create an outdoor gallery in the quiet, residential area. We talk about moving ar...

I spend an afternoon in an old, echoey water tower in Copenhagen, talking to my old friend Pernille Pedersen about her exhibition Recreational Activities . She explains how she has repurposed common objects such as jeans and bras, turning them into crawling sculptures in the shadows of the tower, and how she hopes the audience will make their own interpretations about her work. Pernille describes...

In this experimental speciality of an episode, I interview myself in my childhood home in Copenhagen. I talk about making this podcast series, how I use conversation as a tool and material in my art practice, and I explain how long COVID brought my focus into my ears, because I was too light-sensitive to look at electronic screens. I also talk a bit about my family and the area I grew up in, and r...

Tanja Silvestrini and Victoria Løvheim invite me into their home in Helsinki, to talk about different kinds of performance art. Tanja show me their homemade animal costumes and explain their plans to let people temporarily adopt them as a pet, and Victoria tell about being a drag queen as a woman. We treat the subject of co-inhabiting urban, public space, and the behavioural patterns we often coll...

Artist duo SASHAPASHA (Sasha and Pavel Rotts) talk us through their exhibition Fragile Narratives in Galleria Huuto in Helsinki, where they have mixed childhood artefacts, early artworks, inherited memories, and new works, referencing their combined history and a collective past. They take us on a journey through their childhood in the Soviet Union and their grandparents' relocation to Finland, an...

Harriina Räinä explains all about her solo exhibition The Other as Matter in Helsinki Art Museum (HAM): a large-scale, minimalist printmaking installation utilising old Japanese woodcut techniques and tools. We talk about traveling across the world to study traditional methods, and the invisible collaboration that automatically happens when you work with tools or materials containing animal produc...

Verneri Salonen talks us through his solo exhibition Timeless Racing in Project Room gallery in Helsinki, and gives us a peak into the world of motorcycle-enthusiasts. We talk about growing up in the Finnish countryside and driving a moped from the age of 5, maturing and realising that you ideals have outgrown your passion, and using art as a farewell tribute when closing a chapter of your life. V...

I talk to Natalie Seifert Eliassen in the Kuva/Tila gallery of the Fine Arts Academy of Helsinki, where she has built her Breastfall : a waterfall constructed by sculptures of breasts, made from casts of volunteered audience bodies during the exhibition period. We discuss body image issues, nudity in art and society, and how it might be possible to reclaim your body and sexuality and set your brea...

I visit Juliana Irene Smith and Arvid van der Rijt in the underground war-shelter-turned-art-venue Free Art Space in Helsinki. They have made their first collaborative installation More Please , reminiscing about their youth and dealing with childhood trauma using each their mediums of choice in one big immersive collage. Arvid explains how he works with sound and video in his live-reactive setup,...

In this very first episode of my podcast career, recorded in March 2022, I talk to Cosmo Großbach about analogue photography in Värinä Color Darkroom in Helsinki, and Cosmo explains how it is different to work with colour compared to black and white. We talk about moving around and studying and working in different countries, and shooting large format photography in the nature. Cosmo also brought...