And then with Powers Combined

Galleria FAFA, 14.2 - 3.3

I wasn't going to write about this exhibition because it closes on sunday. I only went there myself today, to make sure I don't miss it - and it is fabulous! Not everything of course. It is a group exhibition, and the quality varies from work to work, but some of them are marvelous.

And Then With Powers Combined is a group exhibition for the new master students at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. The paintings are not that interesting, but some of them, like Päivikki Alaräihäs Boonsong and Klaus Kopus Phenomenon are intriguing. Kristina Sedlerovas mechanical installation Aaaall byyyyy myyyyy seeelf is interesting, specially with the electronics, and as a moving object. It feels a bit unfinnished though, like she didn't have the time to complete it. I get a similar feeling from Emily Al-Gusseins installations/sculptures. In a kitchy way they comment on difficult themes like immigration and terrorism, but I keep thinking; Where there no other materials she thought more fitting for creating these. Monument of the long journey is the only one of her three sculptures that seem fully thought through and finnished. Someone who is definetly putting a lot of work into this exhibition, I'm not saying the others are not, is Megan Snowe. She is reflecting on play, work and learn(ing), in an artistic research of her own everyday life. By using John Dewy's definitions of play, work and learn, she ponders on, and fills out charts, of what she has been doing during February. This is a great way of researching your own processes, regardless your profession. Pirjetta Brander and Lotta Mattila seem to comment on the meat industry in their works. Brander has placed things that remind me of featherless chickens in a swimmingpool. In the swimmingpool there are som fried eggs floating around (their children?). While a pile of piglets are crawling towards a zink drain in Mattilas work. These are both humoristic works of art with a serious, and rather unsettling, undertone. Red Proberty by Timo Tähkäinen is a more straight on gory work, but with the same kind of atmosphere as Branders and Mattilas. Maarit Mustonen and Milla Toukkari are both playing with words, but in very different ways. Mustonen has written a poem (unfortunately in Finnish, and there is no translation) hidden in a form. I don't know what kind of form it is, but it looks burocratic, and there is space for a photograph. It might be a visa-application. Mustonens work on the other hand is a book, with a poem (in English), written in an aesthetic and shattered manner, sort of dadaism meets tattoo art. Next to the book she has placed a pile of paper squares with a human silhouette, and a pen. There is also box, and supposedly the idea is for visitors to use the pen on the paper and put the result in the box. The link between the paper squares and the book is not clear to me. The poem does have a twist in the end that makes me think of corpses, but I am not sure if that is the intention since the title of the book is Strange Fruit. All in all this is a see-worthy exhibition. So please do visit during the weekend if you have the time!