Äkkigalleria 17 – In the Earth, In the Sky

Äkkigalleria’s seventeenth exhibition is a group exhibition on the broad and personal theme of death. Ten artists, from nine different countries present their own interpretations of the theme.

Äkkigalleria 17 exhibition presents part of the Dying Eyes project by Taiwanese curator, Yeh Chia-Ming (Soundbody Art Lab). The Dying Eyes project looks at individual interpretations of death from a large array of artists primarily from Asia and Europe. Äkkigalleria will show four video productions from this curated ensemble. Along with these media-work, Äkkigalleria 17 will also include painting, drawing, sculpture and installation from North America, Europe and Asia.

The artists participating in this exhibition:

Phyllis Schwartz (CAN) uses a very direct approach to the theme, using dead and decaying fish and marine life to create lumen (contact) prints. She also includes less abstract digital images of the remains found around Salton lake region.

Gregory Gléyot (FR/DE) uses his black and white photographs to look at death from a philosophical perspective, positioning the material and the spiritual at opposite ends of a scale.  

Adrien Millet (FR/CAN) shows a simple photograph, an ode to Mother Earth.

Taishi Nishi (JPN) presents delicate watercolours mounted on wood. His images are narrative frames from a larger story.

Jude Griebel (CAN) shares his recent project Isoäiti created during an artist residency at the University of Lapland. The installation project embodies personal stories of the experience of death, told to the artist and translated into sculptures and drawings.

Herwig Kerschner (AUT) After-Night (Nachnacht, 2009), depicting a dream-like night scene, in

the guidance of imageries symbols, implicitly revealing the absolute beauty of life

passing.

Verena Kyselka(DE) Drinking and drowning (Trinken und Ertrinken, 2003),Over water and under water (Oberwasser und Unterwasser, 2004) in a battle with her own East German past, but as a reflection from today's perspective. In an infinite loop that Kyselka is caught between the upper and the underwater world, on the border between life and drowning. The camera is filming under water, now and then will face Kyselkas exposed, the next moment, the water spills over. The result is an uneasy feeling uncomfortable, as if one in every sense of the word, "the water is up to her neck".

Chen Chieh-Jen (TW) Lingchi : Echos of a Historical Photograph (2003). Lingchi is the ritualistic form of execution, "death by a thousand cuts", practised by the Chinese right up until 1905 when the country's penal code was reformed. Chen's film is a dramatisation based on a single photograph of one of the last performances of the punishment carried out on a convicted murderer Fou-Tchou-Le. This work examines how little how insignificant a life can be under the big societal machinery.

Hsu Che-Yu (TW) perfect suspect (2011) an animation which will be shown in this exhibition, he fakes the crime scene of a fictional community news event, is the truth absent following the corpse's existence? Or the murderer is actually hidden in the media which creates the illusion of being? This will be a hard-to-solve mystery between the viewers and the real truth.

Caro Trigo (ARG /FIN) presents a new performance which looks at death as traces.

Herwig Kerschner, Verena Kyselka, Chieh-Jen Chen and Che-Yu Hsu are part of the Dying Eyes project curated by Yeh Chia-Ming (Soundbody Art Lab). These work are examples of a project which looks into how the subject of death is experienced and communicated through video art and documentary film.

Details and information about the exhibition and other events involved in the Maassa Taivaassa project are available on the ”In the Earth, In the Sky” event page: maassataivaassa.fi 

Äkkigalleria 17

November 1^st – 4^th, 2012, from 1-7pm daily (Sunday until 5pm), free admission

Sammonkatu 7, Jyväskylä

The opening will be held on Hallowe’en (October 31^st) from 5 to 7 pm. 

This year, 2012, Äkkigalleria is the recipient of grants from the Art Council of Central Finland and the City of Jyväskylä. For this we are most grateful!