Äkkigalleria 17 - Images

 Äkkigalleria 17 installation view. Video work by Verena Kyselka Over water and Underwater in the foreground.

 

 Jude Griebel stands in the light preparations for Caro Trigo's performance.

 

Caro Trigo performs at the Äkkigalleria 17 opening.

 

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!

Maassa Taivaassa

At the end of October Äkkigalleria will be participating in a cross cultural exhibition series Maassa Taivaassa (In the Earth, In the Sky -Thoughts About Death) in collaboration with:

• Huoma - henkirikoksen uhrien läheiset ry
• Jyväskylän ammattiopisto
• Jyväskylän kaupunginkirjasto
• Jyväskylän seurakunta
• Jyväskylän taidemuseo
• Jyväskylän ylioppilasteatteri
• Keski-Suomen elokuvakeskus ry
• Keski-Suomen museo
• Keski-Suomen Tanssin Keskus ry
• Käpy - lapsikuolemaperheet ry
• Luovan valokuvauksen keskus ry
• Monikulttuurikeskus Gloria
• Suomen nuoret lesket ry
• Surunauha ry

Äkkigalleria will present a group exhibition including 11 international artists, more information will be published soon.

Äkkigalleria 16 - Images of Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual, Patricia Driscoll

 Photographer Patricia Driscoll in the Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual, opening, view with a storm at sunset.

  Photographer Patricia Driscoll in the Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual, opening view with a rainbow. 

 Photographer Patricia Driscoll in the Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual, opening: gate to the Valon Kaupunki event. 

Photographer Patricia Driscoll in the Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual, view from the western side. 

Photographer Patricia Driscoll in the Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual, view from the eastern side.

 photos: Juho Jäppinen

Interview with Patricia Driscoll

Äkkigalleria interview with Patricia Driscoll on Friday September 14^th, 2012.

Patricia Driscoll during her 2 week residency in Jyväskylä (photo Juho Jäppinen)

Äkki: This is your first time in Jyväskylä, and to Finland, you spent a day in Helsinki before taking the train up to Jyväskylä. What are your first impressions of Jyväskylä (and Finland)?

PDriscoll: I thought it was really smart. Everything was impressive.. and spacious. But it is also quite relaxed, and functional, it is all very high tech.

Flying into Helsinki there are these islands below, and the trees and the sea. And so the first thing you see is nature; islands and sea.

The other thing I found odd was how quiet everyone was. But I like that sort of quietness.

Äkki: Earlier you mentioned that you are not photographing the same things as you usually photograph. What and how do you usually photograph – how is that different from what you are doing here?

PDriscoll: I usually plan my photography, and I pursue a project over two to three years. So my work will revolve around planning it. Here I have to respond to my environment quite spontaneously. Here I am responding to what I see in Jyväskylä and I have to think of how I can fit my ideas into what is happening here. If that is possible.  This is probably a good thing because it makes you change your approach.

Äkki: Some of your work is quite political (A Means to an End). And some of your work appears to be more visually based (abstract landscapes coming from more natural settings). How do you bridge these seemingly different kinds of landscape?

PDriscoll: I was 18 or 19 when apartheid became redundant. During that time everything was political, I was affected by it. In a sense I didn’t want to deal with that at all, I felt I wanted to turn away from it, but it was always there, you can’t get away from it and it influences you in many ways.

And I think the abattoir series is not overtly political.

I think the way we treat animals is political, what we eat is political, but it is not particular to South Africa, it is a general issue. But in doing the work I did find out some interesting stuff about the particular places I went to. And a lot of the apartheid abattoirs are closing down, but they are being replaced, in some cases, by global companies rather than local companies; which is quite disturbing I think, because local is much better. So they are actually bringing in work forces from Ireland or other places and they are now competing with our local guys, which is terrible.

Äkki: What drew you to photograph in the abattoirs (slaughterhouses)? How did you get started on that project?

PDriscoll: I started in Cape Town. My friend and I did a project together, we were interested in where meat comes from. So we went to a supermarket and bought some beef but it’s all neatly packaged and we thought we would do a story on where it comes from. We went to the Maitland abattoir and we actually came across this amazing phenomenon called the Judas Goat, and that is really what we based our story upon, this goat that lives in the abattoir and leads the sheep into the slaughterhouse. So that is how it all started really, with the Judas Goat. But they don’t have Judas Goats any more; it has become more mechanized now.

Now this particular Judas Goat that we photographed, that abattoir closed down (another example of an apartheid abattoir) and it went to a petting farm. You kind of feel sorry for the goat but also it’s quite unsettling to think of all these children, stroking this goat, who don’t know what the goat has been doing.

I think the way we treat animals really reflects on how we treat each other, and I think we should think more about that. People don't think about it, I mean you can’t think about it otherwise you can’t eat meat. But it is pretty horrific, and on such a large scale. I mean I am not against eating meat, at all, but I think the scale of it is sort of scary.  The mechanization of it and the economics.

Äkki: Do you think having lived through and out of Apartheid in South Africa, has affected your work as a photographer?

PDriscoll: It’s difficult to see how, objectively, what could have affected me, but it’s definitely affected me. It just affects the way you see things. It’s a very difficult subject, and it is very emotional as well, and it is not easy to describe I guess, and through the TRC (truth and reconciliation commission) it was a highly emotional time for many South Africans, and I still think it is incredibly difficult.

Äkki: In Helsinki this year, all of the first year photography students are women. Thirty years ago the photography scene was dominated by men, as it is today in South Africa. Do you think there could be this kind of turn of the tables in South Africa? How do you see the future of women photographers in South Africa?

PDriscoll: I don’t think it matters too much, I mean there are a lot of really great photographers who are women, who are doing very interesting work. I think it is a difficult field in which to be a professional, I mean if you want to be an artist. But I think there is a lot of scope for female photographers.

I went to Rhodes University for a while and a lot of the students there were women, and I don’t know many girls in my class who have done well in photography. Maybe you have to be a little bit aggressive to do photography as a woman, maybe a little bit more aggressive than normal, I’m not sure. I don’t know.

I think there are more men photographers at the moment but there are quite a few females too.  

Äkki: What is your earliest memory of light?

PDriscoll: I think it was making daisy chains. As a primary school girl I would sit and make daisy chains with my friends, in the sun, I think that's when I really noticed light, spring and summer.

Äkki: And what about your earliest memory of art?

PDriscoll: that is quite a difficult one, I don’t really know how to answer that because art can be so many different things. Art can just be an experience or –, it doesn’t necessarily mean a picture or a visual. So I guess for me an experience: my first experience of art I guess, my first experience of fear would probably sum that up, but a fear that was exciting at the same time, so probably riding a horse, galloping for the first time, down a slope or something like that, would be that experience for what I feel like art can be. The sort of feeling of fear or anticipation, but with enjoyment.

Äkki: And now some one word/short answers:

Äkki: Colour

PDriscoll: Grey

Äkki: Process

PDriscoll: Time

Äkki: Explanation

PDriscoll: Infinity

Äkki: Message

PDriscoll: Return

Äkki: Object

PDriscoll: Subject

Äkki: Place

PDriscoll: Home

Äkki: Time

PDriscoll: Space

Äkki: Light

PDriscoll: Dark

Äkki: Movement

PDriscoll: Repeat

Äkki: Art

PDriscoll: Life

Äkki16 - Taiteilijapuheenvuoro, Patricia Driscoll

Etelä-afrikkalainen valokuvaaja Patricia Driscoll esittelee omaa työskentelyään ja luo katsauksen etelä-afrikkalaiseen nykyvalokuvaan.
Tilaisuus järjestetään Äkkigallerian ja Luovan valokuvauksen keskuksen toimesta, ja se pidetään Galleria Ratamolla Jyväskylässä.

Ke 19.09. klo 18
Galleria Ratamo (vanha veturitalli) Jyväskylä

Äkkigalleria 16 - Residency with Patricia Driscoll

Äkkigalleria welcomes South African photographer, Patricia Driscoll, to Jyväskylä for a two week residency. The fruits of her residency will be shown at the very first Kirkkopuisto Photo Annual, at Kirkkopuisto, Jyväskylä, which opens on Friday the 21st of September at 6:30pm.

Patricia will give a public artist talk including her personal take on the current photo-scene in South Africa on Wednesday the 19th at 6pm.
The event is jointly hosted by Äkkigalleria and The Centre for Creative Photography at Galleria Ratamo in Jyväskylä. 
Everyone is welcome to join us around a cup of roiboos tea.

Wednesday, September 19th at 6pm
Galleria Ratamo (Roundhouse) Jyväskylä