Images from Äkkigalleria 35 – Portable Walls by Christian Nicolay & Ya-chu Kang

coming soon.

Portable Walls – Christian Nicolay & Ya-chu Kang, Äkkigalleria 35

 

Äkkigalleria 35

Portable Walls: Christian Nicolay & Ya-chu Kang
Vaasankatu 10, Jyväskylä
28. – 31.10.2015
open 11–19, and 11–16 on Saturday

Ya-chu Kang Christian Nicolay and Ya-chu Kang are multimedia, visual artists who work together in a range of materials. Both artists utilize found material of the everyday, producing works ranging from the various topographical landscapes of Nicolay's mixed media paper drawings to Kang's multi layered textile and fiber art and their reconstructions of objects into sculptural forms. Throughout this exhibition the artists’ individual and collective works will examine cultural boundaries and social constructions of identity as well as how we individually know ourselves in a growing global fabric increasingly becoming crisscrossed and blurred. The work created in Jyväskylä for Äkkigalleria 35, focuses on issues that have recently been at the forefront in current social and political debates including: Borders and Boundaries Borders without Boundaries Diaspora Spatial histories Temporal Permanence Cultural landscape Cultural mosaic Perpetual Intersections The artists approach their work with these subjects in mind to create a new body of work. Allowing the viewer to experience these difficult issues from the visceral and intellectual perspective of art.

Important dates Thursday, October 22nd, at 2pm at the Craft Museum of Finland A lecture on traditional texiles from different continents and the use of textiles in her work, by Ya-chu Kang. Tuesday, October 27th, at 7pm at Äkkigalleria, Vaasankatu 10 Opening celebration of Portable Walls exhibition. Presenting new work made exclusively in Jyväskylä by Christian Nicolay and Ya-chu Kang. All Äkkigalleria events are open to the public and free of charge. More information: Anna Ruth akkigalleria@gmail.com

Christian Nicolay port·a·ble walls 1, a temporary or nomadic shift serving to enclose, divide, protect or change ones identity (i.e.: your identity shifts depending on where you are). 2, To adapt to ones surroundings. 3, What is destroyed is reborn (i.e.: A wall is meant to set a barrier from one area to another, but making it portable means you have to set it up and take it down each time). 4, Fluctuating re-occurrences. 5, Paradigm shift. 6, A person who creates more than one identity, traces of digital footprints, profiles and usernames. 7, Cultural landscapes that become crisscrossed and blurred from globalization, shifting borders, war, geo-politics, digital revolution, travel, re-location, etc. 8, paying attention to the constant flux of rules, regulations, definitions, checks and changes on privacy laws and the ability to relearn what is learned.

Bio Christian Nicolay & Ya-chu Kang started collaborating in 2010 at the Playwrights Theatre Centre (Candahar Bar Project, Clamour and Toll) in Vancouver BC Canada with a sound performance based on morning rituals and habits from Western and Eastern cultures. Nicolay and Kang’s art field have included sculpture, installation, video, sound recording, performance and site-specific projects. Their research deals with the shifting polarities between Western and Eastern cultural landscapes which they define as “portable walls”, a temporary or nomadic shift serving to enclose, divide, protect or change ones identity. Issues of memory, process, space and time revolve around their portable walls explorations and how these constructions become part of their own experiences and spatial relationships.

CV

Nicolay & Kang received an artist in residence program and exhibition at the Taipei Artist Village (TAV) in Taipei Taiwan (2010) and at Äkkigalleria in Jyväskylä Finland (2015). They have exhibited their projects abroad in Italy (Sienna Art Institute 2011)(Valcellina Award International Contemporary Textile/Fiber 2012), Japan (Talganie Museum 2011), Canada (Initial Gallery 2014)(Maple Ridge Gallery 2013)(Elliott Louis Gallery 2012), Austria (Schmiede Art Festival 2012), Taiwan (Absolute Art Gallery 2015)(Yensui Lantern Festival 2015)(Museum of Medical Humanities 2012)(Songshan Culture and Creative Park 2012), Hong Kong (Art Experience Gallery 2013), Korea (SESIFF: The 5th Seoul International Extreme-Short Image and Film Festival 2013), USA (VAEFF: Video Art and Experimental Film Festival 2014)(Wayfinding Film Festival 2014), Egypt (7th Cairo Video Festival 2015) and their video Recoil received the Judges award prize from the NW Film Centre (Portland OR USA) and screened at the Portland International Film Festival (2012).

Äkkigalleria 5 Artist Residency

For its first Artist Residency, Äkkigalleria is inviting two visual artists from two different countries: Chrstian Nicolay from Canada and Roy Hopiavuori from Finland. The concept behind this residency is to bring two unfamiliar artists together within an appropriate space for the duration of (approximately) 2 weeks.

In this residency we are bringing two artists, who have never met, together for an intense period of creation. The artists themselves are free to create the exhibition together or next to each other as they wish. They might each come with their own pre-designed ideas but working with the unfamiliar, the particular space and time will force them to adapt spontaneously.
–Anna Ruth

The space will be opened to the public at the end of the residency for a four-day exhibition. The space for Äkkigalleria has been found and will be announced soon.

Äkkigalleria 3

Äkkigalleria 3 presented a selection of artists at the multimedia edge of the current art scene in Vancouver. The work references the Olympics in a critical point of view, to discuss deeper concerns within contemporary society. Here is a presentation of the artists:

Jesse Corcoran’s piece “Sad Majority” was on display at the Crying Room Gallery before and during the Vancouver Olympics. The graffiti styled drawing, representing four un-happy faces and one happy face, was order to be removed by “officials” in the months preceding the Winter Games. The controversy was however short lived and the piece was re-installed during the Olympics. This drawing directly addresses the imbalance of profit in hosting a “big money” event such as the Olympics.

Robert Gardiner looks at surveillance and use of space in his video “Survailing Airspace”. This video was first shown as part of the exhibition “A Collective Response- a group exhibition responding to the current cultural landscape in Vancouver” at Gallery Gachet. In this piece, Gardiner films an advertisement for the Olympics in an empty hallway that is under surveillance. Gardiner’s work looks at the use of space and security during the Olympic Games through a humorous lens by bringing focus to the absurd.

Rina Liddle is interested in boundaries between the private and public spaces. Liddle’s work is rooted in interactive and new media expression through which she physically puts the viewer in an active position. “We Are Watching” was first shown at the Jeffery Boone Gallery as part of the “Bright Light” project sponsored by the Vancouver City. This project has been modified, from its original presentation form, to suit the space, context and public of Äkkigalleria.

Heidi Nagtegaal’s artistic practice springs out of her background in craft and her interest in social exchange. The performance “Redirecting traffic 2010” was made at the height of the Olympics on a busy street in Downtown Vancouver. This project uses crocheted traffic pylons to help redirect the flow of traffic in a piece that amplifies an artistic temper-tantrum to a dangerous degree while remaining calm. Look at me! Look at Art! Don’t run us down! Pay attention! Nagtegaal’s video symbolically demonstrates the lack of concern and social solidarity in a busy society.

Christian Nicolay’s photograph “20$10” was part of the Artwalk stream of impromptu galleries in Gastown Vancouver during the two weeks of the Olympics. The photograph depicts the fragile hands of a street person holding five 2$ coins. The coins are split into the silver rings and the yellow centre pieces, in much the same way as public opinion was split over hosting the Olympics. Nicolay references the imbalance of wealth generated by the Olympics and hints at other possible uses of taxpayers’ money.

Nola Semczyszyn intertwines light humour with a highly conceptual practice. “A is for Abecedary” is an interactive listing of words used in the Olympics and in Vancouver/Whistler during the Winter Olympics 2010. The list also includes words that are related to the effect of this event on the City and its residents.

Danna Vajda comes from a back ground in writing and fine art which she combines in publication projects. Vajda’s piece is a script/artist book that encourages performance. The text groups athletes, artists and performers in a discussion about modes of representation, the rules of the game and authorship within the Olympics. Vajda has taken advantage of Äkkigalleria to bring her project "olympicsolympicoolympia" into physical being.

The Vancouver De[tour] Guide 2010 is an interactive internet based media-art project. The basic idea behind this project was to offer tourists another side of the “Beautiful British Columbia” Vancouver as advertised by the Olympic committee. The intention of the project was also to rise to the number 1 spot on the Google search list and thereby to compete with the glossy publicity of the Olympics for recognition. The project site for The Vancouver De[tour] is still on-line and active. Visitors of Äkkigalleria are invited to learn about Vancouver and are invited to add any information they might know about the City.
http://vancouvertourguide2010.com/

The majority of the artwork in this exhibition was discovered at various venues around the City during the two weeks of the Vancouver Olympics. Several pieces, including Danna Vajda’s “olympicsolympicoolympia”, Nola Semszyczyn’s “A is for Abecedary” and Rina Liddle’s “Working with what is left” came to life for the occasion of this Äkkigalleria exhibition.

By extracting all of these pieces from their original context (the Olympics) the content of the Winter Games is reduced to a pretext in addressing larger and more urgent social questions of security, money and happiness.

Greetings from the Olympics, Greetings from Home!

Äkkigalleria 3 - Images

Äkkigalleria3 was held from the 27th until the 31st of March 2010. This time the exhibition took place in a former electronics/computer-tech storefront of "Tietoniekka" located at Tapionkatu 4, Jyväskylä Finland. The title of this exhibition is "Greetings from the Olympics" and presented work by 8 Vancouver artists.
Äkkigalleria 3's artists are: Jesse Corcoran, Robert Gardiner, Rina Liddle, Heidi Nagtegaal, Christian Nicolay, Nola Semszynczyn, Danna Vajda and the group Vancouver [De]tour 2010.

With a focus on new media, this show presented video, photo, performance, sculptural and drawing based work. The work in this show was made with reference to the Olympics in the city of Vancouver. Several pieces were specifically made for Äkkigalleira3.

Danna Vajda's Script is seen from upstairs looking down through the stairs.


Unzyme plays at the opening in front of Rina Liddle's installation "We are Watching".


from right to left work by Christian Nicolay, Heidi Nagtegaal and Robert Gardiner.

photos: Juho Jäppinen