Images from the 2015 Katustipendi Jim Bachor

 Images from the unveiling of Jim Bachor's Katustipendi artwork "Tasa-arvo"

Images of Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual 2014

   

The Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual images by Carolina Cruz Guimarey are also available in 
30 x 50cm, editions of 7, at 320€/image.

Äkkigalleria's interview with KpPA residency artist Carolina Cruz Guimarey

 photo: Carolina Cruz Guimarey

Äkkigalleria interview with Carolina Cruz Guimarey on Wednesday September 10^th, 2014.

Äkki: This is your first time to Jyväskylä, and to Finland. What are your first impressions of Jyväskylä (and Finland)?

CCG: I feel that Finland is a place to get lost in a forest. That is what I really have loved and after walking between the shadows of the trees find out a lake, quite and silence. Here, nature is everywhere but it is not overwhelmed it is kind. I have felt protected, lost in a forest, alone, trying to be part of the nature that surrounds me. Peaceful. Finland is peaceful. Taika is one of the first words I have already learnt in finish, guess why.

Äkki: Today you experienced the Finnish sauna for the first time. What kind of experience was this for you? What images from this experience have stuck to your mind?

CCG: It was so liberating! I was able to forget about my body and get completely relax, it is not only a physical relaxation but and mental stay of serenity. The most special moment was be alone, swimming, and naked in the lake’s cold water after the sauna. It was a moment of extremely beauty and calm. You can feel part of the nature that surrounds you.

Äkki: The theme of home, the environment created in and by the construction of a house is a re-occurring subject in your work. What is your first memory of Home? Or can you describe when you first grasped the concept of home?

CCG: I think this concept interests me because I don’t really know what it means. Personally, it is a space of emptiness, something I try to understand, and something I have always been looking for. From the point of view of our society the concept “home” involves a lot of complex realities, from people who have lost their houses in Spain because of the economical crisis to people who are looking for a new homeland beyond the borders of their countries, some of them risking their own lives, some because of war conflicts. So, is home a house, a city, a country, or just a feeling? I don’t know. But in some kind of way we assume  “home” as a part of our identity and our memory. Maybe it is just a dream, a state of mind.

Äkki: You are a multidisciplinary artist, which means that you work with many tools to create images and installations. Photography is only one of these tools. Could you replace photography in your work?

CCG:

When I choose photography to develop a project it is because this project works better this way, I am not looking for the value of the image itself. I’m not a photographer strictly thinking about what that means, I just use my camera when I need it to tell something, I don’t catch images around me, I create those images, I provoke them. Nowadays, It’s easier to improvise in front of the camera, to let you go, almost by instinct, mostly with digital technology.  My photo projects are often related to actions, usually in the form of portraits accompanied by same kind of performance where I play some role in a defined space. It’s like the result of a secret performance, some mystery that involves the space or some objects. I have some ideas, some feelings, then I chose the composition, I search for a kind of light or a special place and I let things happen. I only could do that with photography. I guess some people do that with drawings…I use photography to built my images.

Äkki: In an interview you made with Laatikkomo a few months ago you talked about photography being like a door into another dimension: “a door to a timeless space that gives you the freedom to build new identities”. Are you also building yourself a new identity? Or because you often use yourself in your images, are you building an alter ego?

CCG: Not, exactly. I use my own image because it is practical; I am always with myself so. And that let me improvise much more. But I don’t think I building myself a new identity or create and alter ego. When I appear in my images, it is not me, it is a woman who is there. Usually you cannot see my face, there is nothing that tells you about me, it is a woman, could be you. The images come from me, from my concerns, my feelings, my wonders, but then they become another thing, they are not about me anymore.

Äkki: Some of your series includes found images, or other people’s family portraits, what is your interest in other peoples’ photographs? What do they give to your series?

CCG: Found photographs have a great influence in my artwork. I have been collected this images since a long time. I like the mystery that they have, this is the “door to a timeless space”, they talk about others and at the same time they talk about us. This photos capture personal special moments but I could be our lives, ours grandmother’s life. That is fascinating, we are all the same. We are here for a short time and then we left and we all go throw similar experiences, love, joy, lost, fear, dead. Besides, I have use found photos in lot of my artworks, mostly to talk about women, women reality and history.

Äkki: You seem to go on a lot of artist residencies: just finished a residency in a small town outside of Paris and now you are in a smallish middle sized town in Finland. What importance does a residency have on an artist, and what is the importance of the artist to the community of residence?

CCG: Art residences are for me essential. The periods I have spent in art residencies has let me grow as a person and help me to expand my view as an artist. Also, art residencies give me the possibility of being absolutely focus in my artwork, far away from home, I have a clear goal, develop a concrete project, take as much as possible from this period of time, usually I went back home with some new projects in mind too. Besides, the new places, the new people, everything is positive. My periods in art residences are like oxygen for me, let me breath. Moreover, I have met the most wonderful people from around the world thanks to this opportunities and I have find out magic places, little towns like Guenalguacil (Malaga, Spain), Uncastillo (Zaragoza, Spain), Vilanova de Cerveira (Portugal), Marnay-sur-Seine (France) and now Jyvaskyla. The community also gets enrich with the artists in residency. Local artists get new international nets and people of the community, mostly in little towns, get really involve in the process of the contemporary art and it becomes part of their lives.

Äkki: What kind of photography (or art) is currently popular in your hometown?

CCG: I don’t really think that the kind of work that young photographers are doing in my hometown are really different from the work of other artist of the same generation that I met in Europe. I guess all of us we are living a similar moment so the things that concern us are similar too.  In Galicia, my region in Spain, there are several young photographers who really have a interesting work: Carla Andrade, Jesús Madriñan, David Catá, Ruth Montiel, Veronica Vicente, just to name some of them, the list could be much more longer. All of them are doing international exhibitions very successfully. Carla Andrade’s work is focus in landscape and nature and in some kind of way also Ruth Montiel’s work. I think this is an international tendency and it is logic. This is an issue that concerns specially our generation. We are re-building our relationship with nature.

Äkki: Where do you go to seek inspiration? (To a place or an image, a book, an action…?)Many projects probably have their own source of inspiration, but is there one source of inspiration that you continually return to?

CCG: Poems, words. Often inspiration comes from them. But also my life, the things that worried me, the things that happen around me. Fears. Wounds. Secrets.

Äkki: And now some one word/short answers:

Äkki: Colour

CCG: Here, green.

Äkki: Process

CCG: Painful.

Äkki: Explanation

CCG: ?

Äkki: Message

CCG: Art

Äkki: Object

CCG: Found objects

Äkki: Home

CCG: Home (less)

Äkki: Question

CCG: Life

Äkki: Light

CCG: Shadow

Äkki: Shadows

CCG: Photography

Äkki: Time

CCG: End, Fin(land).

Äkki: Movement

CCG: Travel

Äkki: Photography

CCG: Taika

Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual

Carolina Cruz Guimarey is the 2014 Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual residency artist.

photo: Carolina Cruz Guimarey

Äkkigalleria announces the third Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual residency and exhibition in Jyväskylä. This year's residency artist is Carolina Cruz Guimarey (b. 1981) from Spain. During a two week residency she will photograph 8 new pieces which will be shown in the Kirkkopuisto cultural advertisement lightboxes along Kauppakatu Street. Äkkigalleria collaborates with the Finnish Centre for Creative Photography and the owners of the advertisement placements.

***

Äkkigalleria järjestää kolmannen Jyväskylä Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual -näyttelyn. Photo Annualen taiteilijaksi on valittu espanjalainen Carolina Cruz Guimarey (1981), joka kuvaa näyttelyn teokset Jyväskylässä. Valokuvat ovat esillä syyskuun lopulla Kauppakadun varrelle jyväskylän kulttuuritoimijoiden valomainoskaappeissa. Syyspimeillä valokuvat muuttavat korttelinpätkän valokuvanäyttelyksi. Äkkigallerian yhteistyötahoina näyttelyn toteutuksessa toimii Luovan valokuvauksen keskus ry sekä valomainospaikkojen omistajat.

Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual 

Äkkigalleria 29.
Kirkkopuisto, Jyväskylä 24.9. –3.10.2014

http://www.carolinacruzguimarey.com/
www.akkigalleria.fi

Äkki18 Interview with Maria Teeri & Janne Nabb (English version)

a spectator views part of the installation by Janne Nabb and Maria Teeri

Äkkigalleria interview with Maria Teeri and Janne Nabb on Sunday April 7^th, 2013.

Welcome to the 6^th Äkkigalleria residency in Jyväskylä!

You work in a lot with space and different kinds of space, what kind of space is Jyväskylä?

JN: Straight streets and curved lakeside roads, quite dusty this time of year, and there is a whole lot less snow here than what we expected (there is more in Helsinki).

MT: Many people have stopped to look in the gallery window, to see what is happing in the space, so Jyväskyläläinens seem to be interested in changes along the street.

Äkki: You will be spending the next five days creating a new body of work in a space you just discovered yesterday. Is this an intimidating way to work?

JN: It is!

MT: Yesterday was the day of enthusiasm, and today it’s a bit more distressing.

JN: Last summer we did a similar project at the Mänttä Contemporary Art Exhibition, so this way of working is somewhat familiar.

MT: At Mänttä the material was already there and abundant, but here we have to look for all our material.  So that also brings in a lot new, interesting elements.

Äkki: What do you think of the space? How do you anticipate it will influence the work you make here?

MT: The space is quite dominant.

JN: When we heard that the space was really small, we thought it would be easy to fill, but when we started to create in the space we realized that the size of the space doesn’t really matter, and so small and big spaces each demand a specific kind of approach, and there is pretty much always a lot of work to be done. 

MT: The space is quite slick, and there aren’t any easy, prehensile surfaces. It doesn’t have any distinct attributes such as you can find in industrial halls and old concrete storage spaces.

JN: The windows had gold lettering tape, the walls were champagne, the floor is this kind of grey, so it offers an interesting world of its own. 

MT: The placement is also interesting. We are situated between a pizzeria and a deputy services office, it’s one block away from the downtown pedestrian zone and yet it is still kind of detached from the centre. 

JN: Like the outskirts of the city; the red light district (laugh)… no, not really.

Äkki: How do you usually begin a project? Is what you are doing here different from how you usually work?

MT: It usually begins with something we find..

JN: ..it might be some physical material or a thought.

MT: In this case the space was more our starting point.

MT: normally the duration of our process is a bit more stretched out, sometimes it kind of goes on and on and on changing into something else, progressing as it goes along.

JN: Here we are maybe diluted because we are in what already is, and we are forced to work faster. But it’s like working with a new palette of colours. 

Äkki: You have established yourselves together as a unit. First of all, everyone always wants to know who does what. How do you work out the rules and regulations of the game?

JN: It is quite case specific. Sometimes it starts with a suggestion, so one of us shares an idea and then it starts from there. We can say things out load and someone always answers.

MT: Of course the answer isn’t always nice to hear: it isn’t the answer we want or expected to hear. Maybe about ten percent of the ideas are developed into projects.

JN: We don’t really have any set rules to the game yet, but that is good because this way the process is constantly in motion and changing continuously.

MT: If one of us gives up on a project, the other one can bring in new perspectives, which help the project move forward.

Äkki: Our residency couple from last year, Camille and Paul, talked a lot about how their communal drawings, and their whole process for that matter was a discussion, an on going process of communication with the other and the larger community. Do you communicate together through your work? Is discussion the focus of your work?

MT: Yes it probably is.

JN: For me, material, along with ideas, participate in discussion.

JN: We also try to use material and thoughts to communicate with a third party; who is the spectator.

MT: But part of the discussion isn’t open to the public. The discussion is really important and their needs to be some kind of interaction it is a central and essential part of our work together.

Äkki: Could you produce work alone? Could you have a show just as Janne Nabb or just as Maria Teeri? (Will you?)

JN: We met in 2004, and we began working together in 2008, so we did work for four years independently.

MT: But even right from the start, we always critiqued and commented on what the other was doing.

JN: We were making the same kind of work, we used the same colour, the same themes, and interests. And we started to think if it might be better to just work together.

MT: But now it isn’t really important who made what, and it’s not our way of working anymore, although we still do make our own things too.

Äkki: What and who are your influences? (People, artists, books, music..) And how are they (or are they) portrayed through your work?

MT: We quote other artists a lot; continuously, newly found and inspirational sources are unlimited.

JN: But if we have to say a name, the magic vanishes.

MT: Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger from ARS 2006 were a great inspiration for us in the beginning because they work together.

JN: Vesa-Pekka Rannikko is another interesting creator, whose work has influenced us along the way.

JN: There are element of influence from a surprising amount of artists, whose work we still hold on to for years and years.

MT: Last summer at Mänttä we discovered a great many artists and artwork. And the exhibition’s idea was wonderful in that respect because it really was inspirational in creating something new. And then there was dOKUMENTA 13 of course…

Äkki: The last phrase in your artist statement is: Working with found material often leads to unconventionalities and barbaric misreading. Can you expand on that statement? Could you give an example of a “barbaric misreading”?

JN: This was something one of our art teachers’ interpretations of our workspace and our way of working.

MT: If you use re-cycled materials, then multiple interpretations and “misunderstanding” are part of the process.

JN: Well fundamentally, we are painters, and painters don’t always have to justify each and every brushstroke they make. But because we work with re-cycled material, and all material has its own history, the viewer might make their own interpretations based on that history. But we are really using the material like paint.

MT: Maybe this is where the idea of barbaric misreading came from.

Äkki: I noticed that branches and sticks are a returning element in your work. Is this by accident or do they represent something more? What role do they play in your work?

JN: You are right, they do. I think they often function in the role of something that holds things up, used as a support for hanging things…

MT: As a rack/stand.

JN: The form of a branch is nice to hold on to when, for example, we are walking through Jyväskylä from our apartment to the gallery. It is a material counterpart…

MT: ... to all the plastic we use.

JN: To balance the fengshui.  But branches are easy to pick up and take along with you.

MT: I also pick them up along the way.

JN: Maybe it is a natural way of connecting with our primitive ancestry.

Äkki: A Finnish language professor just wrote an article in the Helsinki Sanomat newspaper about how we learn language the wrong way; we stress language classes at the wrong age (too late) we are only taught “important” languages such as English, and that instead, there should be more stress on multiple and divers languages at a younger age and in a more social and interactive context. What is your relationship to language?

JN: My father is a Swedish-Finn, but we never spoke Swedish at home. However, I got a lot of information through concrete, hands-on learning: fixing, customising bicycles and other things.  And I learned English through doing.

MT: I have always been more of a literary person. Mathematics and things in systematic order are natural for me. This might have come from my family’s background in classical music. I am not really an “innovator” I like to create things systematically. So, these are different kinds of languages, which offer different ways of observing the world.  

Äkki: What is your earliest memory of colour?

JN: Oh no. It probably would be the turquoise coloured fountain in yard of my childhood home. I dove in and the colour changed as the water turn red. I don’t remember that change of colour, but I remember the turquoise.

MT: I have a lot of colour memories. Maybe one colour memory would be of when I was made to lie in bed for a nap, but I didn’t want to. I remember pressing down on my eyelids and rubbing them; all the colours that appeared in a different and interesting colour-world.

Äkki: And what about your earliest memory of art?

MT: For me it is probably related to music, because my parents were both musicians. But I probably first discovered visual art through illustrations in books.

JN: My father built a lot of things; he made me a Jeep that was powered with a lawn-mower motor, and then there was a raft that we sailed over the river. These represented a feeling of freedom and an experience of something that I now want to do with my art. Something all encompassing.

Äkki: And now some one word/short answers:

Äkki: Colour

MT: Spectrum

JN: Tool

Äkki: Process

MT: Periphery

JN: Procedure

Äkki: Explanation

JN: Around…

MT: …the corner

Äkki: Object

MT: Partner

JN: Quasi-object

Äkki: Material

MT: Paint

JN: Tangible

Äkki: Time

JN: Slowed

MT: Cyclic

Äkki: Word

MT: Game

JN: Re-discovery

Äkki: Sound

JN: Metallic

MT: Black bird

Thank you Janne & Maria!

Äkki-haastattelu Maria Teerin & Janne Nabbin kanssa

Janne Nabb and Maria Teeri in front of Eila Kinnunen's painting in the dark

                                                                                       photo: Juho Jäppinen

Äkkigallerian haastattelu Maria Teerin ja Janne Nabbin kanssa sunnuntaina 7.4.2013.

Tervetuloa Äkkigallerian kuudenteen residensiin Jyväskylään Maria ja Janne!

Äkki: Työskentelette paljon erilaisissa tiloissa, millainen tila on Jyväskylä?

JN: Suoria katuja ja kaarevia rantateitä, aika pölyistä tähän vuodenaikaan, ja paljon vähemmän lunta kuin odotettiin olevan (Helsingissä on enemmän).

MT: Monet ihmiset ovat pysähtyneet ikkunan taakse gallerialle katsomaan, mitä tilassa on tapahtumassa, eli jyväskyläläisiä näyttäisi kiinnostavan muutokset kadun varsilla.

Äkki: Vietätte seuraavat viisi päivää työskentelemässä tilassa, johon pääsitte eilen ensimmäistä kertaa. Onko tällainen työskentelytapa haastavaa?

JN: On!

MT: Eilen oli innostuspäivä, ja tänään oli hieman ahdistavaa.

JN: Teimme viime kesänä Mäntän kuvataideviikoille samanlaisella aikataululla projektin, joten tilanne on osittain tuttu.

MT: Mäntässä materiaalia oli valmiina ja siitä oli jopa ylitarjontaa, mutta täällä materiaalit on etsittävä. Eli myös paljon uusia mielenkiintoisia elementtejä.

Äkki: Mitä ajattelette uudesta galleriatilasta. Tilahan on varsin pieni. Miten tila vaikuttaa työskentelyynne?

MT: Tila määrittelee aika paljon.

JN: Kun kuulimme, että kyseessä on pieni tila, niin ajattelimme, että sehän on helppo ‘täyttää’, mutta huomasimme, että tilan koko ei käytännössä vaikuta asiaan, vaan pieni ja iso tila vaativat omanlaisensa lähestymisensä, ja periaatteessa suuren määrän itse tekemistä.

MT: Tila oli aika sliipattu, eikä ollut helppoja tarttumapintoja. Eli ei ollut selkeitä ominaisuuksia, joihin tarttua, kuten esim. teollisuushalleissa tai vanhoissa betonisissa varastotiloissa.

JN: Ikkunoissa oli kultaiset teippaukset, seinät shampanjanväreissä, joten se tarjoaa oman mielenkiintoisen mailman.

MT: Paikka on myös mielenkiintoinen. Olemme pizzerian ja varamiespalvelun välissä, korttelin päässä kävelykadusta, mutta kuitenkin jo hieman irti keskustasta.

Äkki: Kuinka yleensä aloitatte projektin toteuttamisen? Onko käynnistyksessä tällä kertaa jotain erilaista?

MT: Työskentely alkaa monesti jostain löydöksestä.

JN: Se voi olla esimerkiksi materiaali tai ajatus.

MT: Tässä se on ollut ehkä enemmän tuosta tilasta lähtöisin.

MT: Normaalisti prosessimme on ehkä hieman pidempiaikaista, ja prosessi kehittyy edetessään.

JN: Tässä ollaan ehkä jatkettu jo olemassa olevan päälle, ja jouduttu vain toimimaan vauhdikkaammin. Meillä on nyt tavallaan uusi väripaletti käytössä.

Äkki: Te olette vakiintuneet työskentelemään parina. Ihmiset haluavat usein tietää, että kumpi on tehnyt mitäkin. Onko teillä pelisääntöjä?

JN: Se on hyvin tapauskohtaista. Joskus se lähtee ehdotuksesta, jompikumpi sanoo jonkun idean, ja sitten homma lähtee liikkeelle. Voi sanoa asioita ääneen ja joku vastaa.

MT: Vastaus ei tietenkään aina ole se mitä on itse odottanut. Ehkä noin kymmenen prosenttia ideoista kehittyy projektiksi asti.

JN: Ei meillä ole selkeitä pelisääntöjä, mutta se on hyvä, sillä näin prosessi pysyy käynnissä ja muuttuu ajan mittaan.

MT: Jos toiselta menee usko projektiin, niin toinen voi tuoda uusia näkulmia ja saada projektia taas eteenpäin.

Äkki: Edellinen residenssiparimme Camille ja Paul puhuivat paljon, että yhteistyö oli dialogia ja piirtäminen oli keskustelua toisen kanssa. Keskusteletteko te töiden kautta, onko kommunikointi työnne keskipiste?

MT: Kyllä se varmasti on.

JN: Koen materiaalit ja ideat keskusteluksi.

JN: Mutta pyrimme materiaaleilla ja ajatuksilla keskustelemaan myös kolmennen osapuolen, eli katsojan kanssa.

MT: Osa keskusteluista ei tietenkään aukea ulkopuolisille. Keskustelu on tärkeää ja vuorovaikutus pitää olla, se on työskentelyssämme keskeistä ja välttämätöntä.

Äkki: Pystyttekö enää työskentelemään itsenäisesti? Voiko tulevaisuudessa olla Janne Nabbin tai Maria Teerin näyttelyä?

JN: Me tavattiin vuonna 2004 ja ruvettiin tekemään yhdessä teoksia 2008, eli neljä vuotta oltiin ‘itsenäisiä’.

MT: Mutta alusta alkaen molemmat kyllä antoivat palautetta ja kommentoi toistensa tekemisiä.

JN: Teimme kyllä samansuuntaisia teoksia, samanalaisilla väreillä yms. Ja aloimme miettimään että eikö voisi sitten tehdä yhdessä...

MT: Mutta nykyisin ei ole enää tärkeää meille, että kumpi on mitäkin tehnyt, eikä se itsekseen tekeminen enää ole luonnollinen tapa toimia, vaikka koko ajan tehdään tietenkin myös omia asioita eri rintamilla.

Äkki: Millaisia esikuvia teillä on ollut vuosien varrella, ja vaikuttavatko ne tekemiseenne?

MT: Lainailemme paljon muilta taiteilijoilta, vaihtuvuutta ja inspiraation lähteitä on loputtomasti.

JN: Mutta jos sanoo jonkun tietyn nimen, niin se taika vähän haihtuu.

MT: Gerda Steiner ja Jörg Lenzlinger vuoden 2006 ARSsissa olivat inspiroivia meille, kun he työskentelivät yhdessä ja tekivät mielenkiitoisia projekteja.

JN: Vesa-Pekka Rannikko on myös yksi mielenkiintoinen tekijä, jonka teokset ovat tehneet vaikutuksen matkan varrella.

JN: Yllättävän monelta taiteilijalta löytää kuitenkin vaikuttavia asioita, joita muistaa vuosienkin päästä.

MT: Viime kesän Mäntässä oli myös paljon mielenkiintoisia tekijöitä ja teoksia. Ja näyttelyn idea oli siellä hieno, joka inspiroi tekemään jotain uutta. Ja dOKUMENTA 13 tietenkin…

Äkki: Kotisivuillanne on lainaus tekstistä, jossa sanotaan, että työskentelynne kierrätysmateriaalien kanssa voi johtaa usein epäsovinnaisuuksiin tai barbaarisiin uudelleentulkintoihin. Voisitteko hieman avata tätä ajatusta?

JN: Tämä oli yhden kuvataideprofessorin tulkinta meidän työskentelystä ja käyttämistämme materiaaleista.

MT: Jos käyttää uusiomateriaaleja, niin monitulkinnaisuus ja ‘väärinluku’ oikeastaan kuuluvat siihen prosessiin.

JN: Olemme koulutukseltamme maalareita, maalarin ei aina tarvitse perustella jokaista viivaa. Kun työskentelemme uusiomateriaalien kanssa, niin kaikilla materiaaleilla on historia, jolloin katsoja tekee erilaisia tulkintoja omien kokemustensa pohjalta. Mutta me käytämme niitä enemmän maalin tapaan.

MT: Tästä saattaa syntyä ajatus barbaarisista väärinluennoista.

Äkki: Huomasin, että kepit ja oksat toistuvat teoksissanne. Onko tämä sattumaa, vai onko taustalla jotain suurempaa? Mitä oksat merkitsevät teille?

JN: Minun mielestä ne toimivat aika monesti sellaisessa roolissa, että ne pitävät jotain esillä.

MT: Telineinä.

JN: Muoto on sellainen, että siihen on hyvä tarttua, kun esim. kävelee JKLssä kämpiltä gallerialle. Se on materiaalinen vastapari...

MT: ...kaikelle sille muovisuudelle.

JN: Että fengshui on kohdillaan. Niitä on helppo ottaa käteen ja mukaan.

MT: Minäkin noukin niitä aina matkoilta.

JN: Ehkä siinä pääsee jollain tapaa lähemmäs alkukantaisuutta.

Äkki: Suomalainen kielitutkija sanoi juuri, että kieliä opetetaan ihan väärin, ja sen sijaan, että kaikille opetetaan englantia, pitäisi olla mahdollisuus opetella monia erilaisia kieliä. Mikä on teidän suhteenne kieliin?

JN: Minun isäni on suomenruotsalainen, mutta meillä ei puhuttu ruotsia kotona. Mutta sain paljon tietoa konkreettisen käsillätekemisen kautta. Korjattiin ja tuunattiin pyöriä ja laitteita. Minä olen oppinut englanninkin tekemisen kautta.

MT: Minä olen aina ollut kirjallinen. Matematiikka, järjestelmällisyys ovat helppoja. Ehkä se tulee sieltä perheeni klassisen musiikin taustan kautta. En ole sinällään ‘innovatiivinen’, vaan tykkään järjestelmällisesti luoda asioita. Eli on erilaisia kieliä, jotka tarjoavat erilaisia tapoja havainnoida maailmaa.

Äkki: Mikä on ensimmäinen muistikuvanne väristä?

JN: Aika paha. Se on varmaan meidän lapsuuden kotipihan koristealtaan turkoosinsininen väri. Hyppäsin sinne ja vesi värjäytyi verenpunaiseksi. En muista tuota värjäytymistä, mutta muistan sen turkoosin värin.

MT: On paljonkin värillisiä muistoja. Sellainen värimuisto tulee mieleen, että piti maata sängyssä ja nukkua päiväunia, mutta ei halunnut. Ajankuluksi hieroin sormilla silmäluomia, ja siitä syntyi erilaisia mielenkiintoisia värimaailmoja.

Äkki: Entäs ensimmäinen muistikuva taiteesta?

MT: Minulla se varmaan liittyy musiikkiin, koska vanhempani olivat silloin muusikoita. Kuvataide on varmaan tullut kirjakuvituksien kautta ensimmäisen kerran.

JN: Isä oli kova rakentamaan ja hän rakensi meille jeepin, joka toimi ruohonleikkurin moottorilla ja sitten lautan, jolla seilasimme läheisen joen yli. Niissä on jonkinlainen vapaudentunne ja kokemus, että se olisi jotain, mitä itsekin nyt haluaisi taiteellaan tehdä. Jotain kokonaisvaltaista kokemista.

Äkki: Ja seuraaviin toivomme yhden sanan vastauksia:

Äkki: Väri

MT: Spektri

JN: Työkalu

Äkki: Prosessi

MT: Kehä

JN: Proseduuri

Äkki: Selitys

JN: Kulman…

MT: …takana

Äkki: Esine

MT: Kumppani

JN: Kvasiobjekti

Äkki: Materiaali

MT: Maali

JN: Kouriintuntuva

Äkki: Aika

JN: Hidastuu

MT: Syklinen

Äkki: Sana

MT: Peli

JN: Uudelleenlöytäminen

Äkki: Sound

JN: Metallinen

MT: Mustarastas

Äkkigalleria 18

 photo: Juho Jäppinen

Janne Nabb and Maria Teeri have just arrived for their week-long residency in Jyväskylä. They will be working on site at Yliopistonkatu 21 until their opening on Friday the 12th of April.
You are welcome to stop by to see the progression of their creation. Visits can be pre-arranged with Äkkigalleria (akkigalleria(at)gmail(dot)com) or directly with the artists.

Welcome to the opening on Friday April 12th 5-7pm.
Yliopistonkatu 21, Jyäskylä

Äkkigalleria 18, a 7-day residency

view of the installation by Maria Teeri and Janne Nabb

Äkkigalleria 18, Janne Nabb & Maria Teeri

Äkkigalleria 18 presents Janne Nabb and Maria Teeri an artist couple based in Helsinki. Janne and Maria are Äkkigalleria’s sixth artists in residency, and will be in Jyväskylä for our shortest residency yet: seven days. An ingenious pair of young artists, specialized in an array of mediums and disciplines will now spend one week outside of their studio to create something new and unexpected. The artists have been systematically working together for over three years. Last summer, their work was part of the Mänttä Taideviikot at Pekkilo and currently they are showing in the Reality Bites exhibition in the Museum of Contempoary Art Kiasma.  

Äkkigalleria 18 will show a new installation of work by Janne Nabb and Maria Teeri. The work for this installation will be made exclusively in Jyväskylä for the Äkkigalleria 18 exhibition. Everything will therefore be made within one week’s time. We hope that this added pressure will spur the artists into producing work which challenges their routine in creation.

This residency is in dialogue with last year’s spring residency by the drawing duet Camille Girard and Paul Brunet, who also produce their work together.  However, because Nabb and Teeri are of Finnish origin, they will not need to spend time/energy on culture shock and observation in same way as many of our foreign residency artists. This will allow the artists a more intense creation period to produce work which focuses on the moment of now.

Äkkigalleria 18,

Yliopistonkatu 21, Jyväskylä

Residency 05.04. – 12.04.2013

Exhibition 13. – 14.04.2013, klo 13–19

The opening will take place on Friday the 12th of April from 5 - 7pm.