Pondering with Pines – video works in the Telegraph Gallery on Harakka Island 6.-18.June 2023. Open Tue-Sun 12 (noon) to 5 pm.
Welcome to the opening on Monday 5 June at 6 pm.
Information about the project:
https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1323410/1589526
Other exhibitions on the island:
Looking back, my first impression of the past year was that besides the slow return to ‘normal’ life after the pandemic restrictions or the shock and horror of the war in Ukraine not much happened to me, personally. Some recently received rejections to various applications created the impression that I did not accomplish that much. When I look back at the list of events, talks and publications, the opposite is the case; I have to be grateful for the many invitations and opportunities during the year. Perhaps the main achievements, considering what I promised to do in my work plan for the TAIKE grant, are the exhibition in Forum Box in February and the publication of the book Performing and Thinking with Trees in December, both related to my previous project Meetings with Remarkable and Unremarkable Trees. The podcast Talking with Trees, which I experimented with already the previous year I have now actively worked with as part of my current project Pondering with Pines. Other exciting experiences, gifts of the year, were the Wood Art Residency Bodafors, the group residency In Light of Plants and performing in Epidermis by Sanna Kekäläinen. And yes, participating live in conferences in Weimar and Reykjavik and in the Bang Bang performance art festival in Basel and Seven of Sevenin Myymälä2 in Helsinki and yes, and many other events…Thank you to all of you!
I have listed the various activities in groups here below, in chronological order rather than with the latest on top as usual in a blog, mainly for the records, so to speak. When getting older I very easily forget what happened, when and where…
Solo exhibitions
Meetings with Spruces and Birches. Gallery Forum Box 11.2.-6.3.2022. See here
Dear Deceased in Mediaboxi, Gallery Forum Box 11.2.-6.3.2022. See here.
Revisiting the Pine and other video works. Telegraph gallery, Harakka Island 25.5.-5.6.2022. See here
Furorna i Bodafors [The Pines in Bodafors]. Malmsten school gallery in Stockholm 22.11.- 4.12.2022.
Works in Group shows
Year of the Pig with a Tatarian Maple (mini). Muu Media art fair 10.-25.9.2022. See here
Works in screenings and compilations
Dear Deceased at Vision Forum Helsinki – Emergence, Microbes, Governing bodies mini festival. See here in SOLU space 2.6.2022.
Konstrundan, open studio on Harakka Island 3-4.9.2022
Year of the Pig with a Tatarian maple (mini) in Muu’s compilation at Film Front festival, Novi Sad 29.10.2022. See here
Participating in Seeds-planting-art web collection, see here
Performances
“Practicing with Pines”, performance and videos as part of the event Seven of Seven, Myymälä2 26.4.2022. See Seven of Seven organised by Myymälä2 25.4.-1.5.2022. Documentation of streaming on Myymälä2 youtube channel, here.
“Pondering in the Park”, performance in Museum Tinguely Park, Basel 23.7.2022.
See program and documentation here
Performing in “Epidermis” by Sanna Kekäläinen 28.10.-6.11.2022. See here
Residencies
Wood Art Residency Bodafors (July-August 2022). See here (in Swedish) and experiments on the RC here
“In Light of Plants”, group residency at Saari, Mynämäki 2-14.7.2022. See plan here and an updated presentation here.
Podcast episodes
Talking with Trees – Puhetta Puille – Talar med Träd on Soundcloud. See playlists:
Talking to a Pine (HEL) (11 episodes), Talking to a Pine (STO) (11 episodes), Pondering with Örö Pines (6 episodes), Furorna i Bodafors (in Swedish, 7 episodes), Silakkarin männylle (in Finnish, 3 episodes)
Publications
The book Performing and Thinking with Trees, Art theoretical writings from the Academy of Fine Art 15, University of the Arts Helsinki. Online here: https://taju.uniarts.fi/handle/10024/7666
Peer reviewed articles
“Looking at (Overlooked) Lichen – Visual journaling as part of meetings with remarkable and unremarkable trees” Research in Arts and Education vol 1 (2022) pp. 75-82 https://doi.org/10.54916/rae.116978
“Kasvien performanssit: kasvit, esittäminen ja esiintyminen kasvien kanssa” [The performances of plants: plants, performing and appearing with plants] in Jukka Mikkonen, Sanna Lehtinen, Kaisa Kortekallio & Noora-Helena Korpelainen (eds.) Ympäristömuutos ja estetiikka [environmental change and aesthetics] Suomen Estetiikan Seura ry, Helsinki 2022, 470-497. Online for free download here
“Returning to the Stairs – on temporality and self-portraiture”. PARtake: The Journal of Performance as Research Vol.5 No.1 (2022), see here
Other texts
“Writing with Trees.” Proceedings of Carpa 7 – Elastic Writing in Artistic Research edited by Pessi Parviainen, Nivel 17 2022, see here
“Teaching Performance Art with Fluxus.” In Aapo Korkeaoja (edit) Performance Art in Practice – Pedagogical Approaches, Worthwise 2022, p 66-85. See here
“How should I write about my work? Notes on publishing artistic research.” jar-online.net. 29/12/2022. https://doi.org/10.22501/jarnet.0059
Talks and presentations
Seminar for doctoral candidates (Norwegian national program), Oslo 2-4.2.2022
On Artistic Research (for doctoral candidates), SKH Stockholm 10.2.2022
On Documentation (for MA students), SKH Stockholm 9.2.2022
On Collaboration and Networking, post doc circle of Performing Arts Research Centre Tutke, University of the Arts Helsinki 3.3.2022
“Kasvit ja esitys” [Plants and Performance], talk at the seminar on environmental aesthetics organised by the Finnish Society for Aesthetics at TSV house (and online) 17.5.2022.
Contribution to the online symposium Designing the Pluriversity organised by Arizona State University 19.5.2022.
Contribution as part of the Artistic Research Working Group presentation at the Performance Philosophy conference in Helsinki 16.6.2022
“Shifting the focus in performance as research”, contribution at the Performance as Research Working Group meeting at the IFTR conference in Reykjavik 21.-24.6.2022.
“Attending to remarkable and unremarkable trees”, workshop at the SAR (Society for Artistic Research) conference in Weimar 30.6.-3.7.2022.
“Pondering with Pines”, contribution at the Artistic Research Working Group meeting 6-7.7.2022 as part of the PSI online conference 6-9.7.2022.
Conversation on performance as research, Museum Tinguely Park, Basel 24.7.2022
“Planting Ideas for Vegetal Humanities and Art Research” as part of Environmental Humanities Month at Helsinki University, 11.10.2022
“Revisiting the Pines on Skifferholmen” in the workshop composting methodologies at SSAM (Speculative spaces for artistic methods) 3.11.2022
“Furorna i Bodafors”, talk at the Malmsten school 22.11.2022
“Voiko puita puhutella?” [can you address trees?] at the autumn days of the Finnish Society for Theatre Research 25.11.2022
Presentation at the book launch, Kuva Research days, University of the Arts Helsinki 14.12.2022.
A small exhibition, “Furorna i Bodafors” [the pines in Bodafors] in the gallery at the Malmsten school in Lidingö, Stockholm, as well as a talk to the students there, was included in my commitments related to the Wood Art Residency Bodafors. Alessandra di Pisa, the curator, helped me plan and actually built the exhibition, which opened on 22 November with a talk at 9 am. Some of the videos created during the residency are on display in small monitors, with my recorded voice on headphones. The photo above is by Leif Burman; the exhibition is documented (in Swedish) on an RC page, here.
I also returned to the maple tree in Kastellholmen, a small island next to Skeppsholmen in the centre of the city. I made a small test conversation with it, in Swedish, but still have not decided what to do with it really. I visited it already in October, when it still had all its leaves:
Now the leaves were gone. I made only one image, and played with it while editing:
For the events celebrating Helsinki day on 12 June I chose a few examples of the videos depicting the yearly cycle of the landscape on Harakka Island that I recorded during the years 2002-2014, as a pilot version of sorts of the whole series of Animal Years. Two videos recorded in the year of the ox (2009-2010), one in the year of the hare (2011-2012) and four in the year of the dragon (2012-2013) can be viewed via QR codes placed in the landscape from these webpages of mine. Here below images of the sites.
Revisiting the Pine and other video works
Telegraph Gallery on Harakka Island 24.5. – 5.6.2022, noon to 5 pm
A selection of recent video works with pines is on display as “screening on demand”.
Welcome to the opening on Tuesday 24.5. at 5 pm
Paluu männyn luo ja muita videoteoksia
Harakan lennätingalleria 24.5. – 5.6.2022, klo 12-17
Nähtävillä on myös valikoima uudempia videoteoksia mäntyjen kanssa “tarvenäytös” periaatteella.
Tervetuloa avajaisiin tiistaina 24.5. klo 17
Återbesök hos tallen och andra videoarbeten
Telegrafgalleriet på Stora Räntan 24.5. – 5.6.2022, kl 12-17
Dessutom visas ett urval nyare videoarbeten med tallar enligt principen “visning på begäran”.
Välkommen på vernissage tisdagen 24.5. kl 17
Yhteysveneen aikataulu – Ferry schedule – Båttidtabellen
Tukijana, med stöd av, supported by:
A performance with videos on Tuesday 26 April in Myymälä2 gallery as part of the event Seven of Seven. I hope to install four ”stations” in the small space, and to invite the audience to practice after I have completed a few rounds. See images on my pine blog, here.
Performanssi videoiden kanssa tiistaina 26.4. Myymälä2 galleriassa osana Seven of Seven tapahtumaa. Toivon voivani asentaa neljä ”asemaa” pieneen tilaa , ja kutsua yleisön harjoittelemaan sen jälkeen kun olen itse tehnyt muutaman kierroksen. Katso stillkuvat mäntyblogissani, täällä.
En performance med videon tisdagen den 26 april i Myymälä2 galleriet som en del av evenemanget Seven of Seven. Jag hoppas kunna installera fyra ”stationer” i det lilla utrymmet, och bjuda in publiken att utföra övningarna efter att jag gjort några varv. Se stillbilderna på min tallblogg, här.
The title of the exhibition in Gallery Forum Box in Helsinki (11.2.-6.3.2022) alludes to the project Meetings with Remarkable and Unremarkable Trees that it is part of. Besides the “balcony” (parvi) the exhibition comprises the small Mediabox where you can show one work, in this case Dear Deceased (6 min 26 sec), see image above, a letter to a dead spruce written in English and added as a voice-over. The work is now in the AV-archive as well, here. The main work in the exhibition is Day with Old Tjikko 1 (17 min 45 sec), performed and recorded in May 2019 with the ancient spruce tree on Fulufjället mountain in Dalarna, Sweden. All the other works, including the one in Mediaboxi, were made in September 2020 during a one month Mustarinda residency in Hyrynsalmi, northeastern Finland.
More information about the exhibition here, and later on in the archive, here. Information about the work in Mediabox here, and later in the archive here. The following images from the exhibition are photographed by Emilia Pennanen:
It’s time to begin something new, although I will be occupied with the project Meetings with Remarkable and Unremarkable Trees for a while
– some works will for example be shown in a group exhibition in gallery Forum Box in February, and I hope there will be more possibilities to show the video works I have made together with various trees. And the new is not really new, but rather a narrowing of focus; I began with plants, zoomed in on trees and will now concentrate on pines. The project is called (at least sofar) Pondering with Pines – Miettii Mäntyjen kanssa – Tänker med Tallar. I began with the Swedish title, which was first talking with trees, which was too limited, and is now thinking with trees, which sounds a little too demanding. I guess pondering is demanding too, but I wanted to have an alliteration in all languages.
The first pine tree that I will practice with this year, ponder with but also pose in the tree pose from taiji with, is a tall and handsome pine growing in Kaivopuisto Park, in the centre of the slope which now serves as a sledding hill. The following two images I took with my phone as documentation or field notes – the two last ones are stills from the video of the very first session today.
Looking back at the year 2021, my second year working on the project Meetings with Remarkable and Unremarkable Trees, see also Meetings with Remarkable and Unremarkable Trees it is difficult to distinguish what was really important. One important turn took place already in November 2020, when I spent a month on Örö island in Öres residency. As a consequence I began working with the pine trees there and returned to the island several times during 2021. During the year I spent April in Päiväkoti residency in Hailuoto, two weeks in June in ArsBioarctica in Kilpisjärvi and July in the Post and Customs house residency on Eckerö. I could finally return to Stockholm after more than one year of covid exile, and spent quite some time there in the autumn. The final events by the research project How to Do Things With Performance (HTDTWP) in the spring were of course an important milestone, although there remains some work to be done with publications and the report. This autumn I was also teaching a little bit in Stockholm and in Helsinki, and the courses will continue in 2022: Concepts and Discussions around Artistic Research, a doctoral seminar with Mika Elo at University of the Arts Helsinki, and Developing an Artistic Research Project, a course with Synne Behrndt at Stockholm University of the Arts, online. Besides the completed performances, exhibitions, lectures and publications, which are listed below, there have been other things and some of the things that are in the making might prove important in the future.
Projects completed in 2021
How to do things with performance? – Miten tehdä asioita esityksellä?, a four-year (five year) research project funded by the Academy of Finland, with Hanna Järvinen, Tero Nauha and Pilvi Porkola (2016-2021). More info on the Uniarts website of HTDTWP with links to blog and living archive on the RC.
Residency at Eckerö Post och Tullhus in July 2021.
Ars Bioarctica residency at the biological station in Kilpisjärvi for two weeks in June, see here and here.
Residency in Kulttuuritalo Päiväkoti in Hailuoto in April 2021
Exhibitions, events and performances
On the Edge (2020) in Öres exhibition on Örö Island 19.6.-31.9.2021. See here and here
Dear Spruce – Kuusi Hyvä 1-7 (2020) and July with a Pine (2020) in the exhibition Artists’ Island on Harakka Island 9.8.-26.9.2021. See taiteilijoidensaari_tiedote_en and here
Open studio on Harakka as part of Konstrundan 4.9. and 5.9. 2021.
“Performance with a Pine” (in the barracks area near the restaurant on Örö) 2.9. 2021. See here.
The Tide in Kan Tiang (2016) in LiikKUVAT exhibition in Harjavalta hospital 18.6.-16.8.2021.
On the Edge II-IV shown in a screening of short films by Örö residency artists at Norpas festival 7.8.2021.
“Swinging in a pine”, participatory performance as part of the Öres 2021 exhibition on Örö 26.6.2021. See here
HTDTWP: epilogue, exhibition in the Research Pavillion 22-24.6.2021 with a Longtable performance 23.6.2021. See here
The Tree Calendar – Puukalenteri – Trädkalendern. Exhibition in the Telegraph gallery on Harakka Island, 19-30.5.2021. See here
Contributing a provocation to “Designing the Pluriversity”, see here .
“HTDTWP: Grande Finale”, University of the Arts Helsinki Theatre Academy (online) 6-7.5.2021 see here
“Swinging in a Pine in Hailuoto” as part of Be-coming Tree Spring Event online 24.4. 2021.
Sitting on a Birch (2006) in MIRRORED – photo performance exhibition, 10.3-16.5. 2021, MUU Helsinki Contemporary Art Centre, Cable Factory. See here and here
“Holding Hands with a Pine” in Be-Coming Tree Live Art Event, online 9.1.2021.
Publications
“Calling for Zoe as a Utopian Gesture” in Ruukku – studies in artistic research #17 Everyday Utopias and Artistic Research, see here and here
“A dialogue about performance, artistic research and trees”, interview by José Quaresma in RIACT no 3, see here and as a separate pdf AA-interview-from RIACT_3
“Dear Olive Tree.” Journal of Embodied Research, 4(2): 5 (19:40). 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/jer.70
“With Mountain Birches on the Tree Line”, Ars Bioarctica Blog 23 June 2021, here.
Working with the Vegetal, 16th issue of Ruukku Journal, see here.
Annette Arlander, Jerry Määttä, Malin Lobell “Engaging Vegetation in the Arts”, editorial for Ruukku #16 Working with the Vegetal, see here
“Kertaa ja koosta” eli märehtiminen menetelmänä [“Repeat and combine” or regurgitating as a method], Taide 3/2021, p 26.
Radio interview in Finnish in the series Kuusi Kuvaa [Six images] and adjacent abbreviated text, here
“With Spruce Stumps and Old Tjikko – On the Individuality of Trees” in Daniela Fargione and Carmen Concilio (eds.) Trees in Literature and the Arts: Humanarboreal Perspectives in the Anthropocene. Lexington Books, 211-228.
“Islands in Time” and “The Feather” in Paula Kramer Suomenlinna / Gropius. Two contemplations on Body, Movement and Intermateriality, Dorset UK: Triarchy Press 2021, pp 35-39 and 61.
Pre-examination statements (in Finnish) for Tuula Närhinen and Elina Saloranta, in Mika Elo and Denise Ziegler (eds.) Yhä Osuvammin / More and More to the Point. The Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts, Helsinki 2021. (pp. 70-73, 75-78, 81-84, 87-89, 92-95 and 226-229, 233-235, 239-242, 247-248, 252-255, 258-260, 267-269, 280-283).
”Day with a Bog Birch – Vegetalising”, available online as theme essay on the Peripheries in Parallax website, here
“Beyond the Saturation Point – Bortom Mättnadspunkten”, VIS #5 2021, see here
“Diffraction, Mixture and Cut-ups in Performing with Plants” in Performance Research 25:5, 31-38. DOI: 10.1080/13528165.2020.1868835
“Dear Spruce – Dear Deceased”, available online as theme essay on the Peripheries in Parallax website, here
Meetings with Remarkable and Unremarkable Trees in Johannesburg and Environs Arts Research Africa, The Wits School of Arts, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, downloadable here: http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/30395
Talks, papers and presentations
“Kasvidemokratia ja esitys tutkimuksena” [Vegetal democracy and performance as research] at the symposium Theatre and Democracy organised by the Finnish Association for Theatre Research 17.12.2021.
“Meetings with trees – repetition as a tool in artistic research” online lecture as part of Video and painting: parallell movements, Artistic research into the unstable condition of the image, International lectures, University of Lisbon 30.11.2021. See here
Lecture about performance studies in a series by Marja Silde at Helsinki University 10.11.2021.
“In the Disappearing Forest” online-presentation at a workshop in Saint Etienne 22.10.2021. See here.
Project presentation as part of a lecture series on ecodramaturgy by Katri Tanskanen at Helsinki University 15.10.2021
“Notes on performativity”, lecture in a seminar led by Marjaana Kella at Academy of Fine Arts, Uniarts Helsinki 24.9.2021.
“Holding nature: Meetings with Trees” online talk as part of the program related to the exhibition New Nature in St. Petersburg 22.9.2021
“Planning and Sharing a Process – Some Nordic Approaches to Artistic Research” as part of the seminar Different Temporalities in Artistic Research, RESCAM, Grenoble, 16-17.9.2021 see here
“Writing to Your Chosen Tree – a Workshop” and “Writing Letters to Trees with the Trees” at CARPA 7 – Elastic Writing in Artistic Research 25.8.and 27.8.2021.(online) See here
“Meetings with Trees in Cities”, talk as part of ”Nature in the City. Nonhuman Heterotopias” (online) 6-8.8.2021 St. Petersburg, see here
”Becoming a Tree – a documented workshop” in IFTR PAR (Performance as Research) Working Group online event 12-16.7.2021.
“Examples of text on video when writing to trees” in Constellate 2021 PSi Artistic Research Working Group online event 7-9.6.2021. See here.
“Meetings with Remarkable and Unremarkable Trees as Artistic Research” 16.6.2021, as part of the International lectures, Faculdade de Belas-Artes Universidade de Lisboa.
“Monday Lecture: Working with Spruces – On the Strange Individuality of Trees” at the Art Academy, Bergen (online), 26.5.2021, see here
Contribution to the fragments of the “lost” SAR conference 2020 published at the SAR conference 2021, see overview and my part
“Day with a Bog Birch – Vegetalising”, presenting the thematic essay in the context of the conference Peripheries in Parallax 9.4.2021, see here
“Meetings with Remarkable and Unremarkable Trees”, online talk
Knowledge in the Arts #2: Annette Arlander, 30.3.21, see here
Opponent for Oona Tikkaoja’s doctoral dissertation “Reality Tinkering. An Artistic Approach to the Abundance of the Familiar” at Aalto University 12.3.2021.
The ARA (Arts Research Africa) publication event of Meetings with Remarkable and Unremarkable Trees in Johannesburg and Environs 18.2.2021.
Opponent at Nathalie Fari’s 50% seminarium on “Situated Agencies: an embodied and documentary approach to site-oriented performance practice”, University of Gothenburg 17.2.2021.
Member of the “Prüfungskommission” for Michael Karlg’s Doktoratstudium on performative materiality, University of Applied Arts Vienna 16.2.2021
Presentation of “Meetings with Remarkable and Unremarkable Trees” at Kuva Research Club 15.2.2021.
Unfold and Articulate, seminar with doctoral candidates in Norway 3-5.2.2021.
Discussing digital possibilities at Tutke post doc event 28 January 2021.
Online lecture at KISS, Colloquium on Kinetics in Sound and Space, Hamburg 27 January 2021.
Presentation of “Dear Spruce – Dear Deceased” as part of the Peripheries in Parallax event, Aalto University 22 January 2021, available online (scroll down) here
Completed engagements
Member of the Committee for Artistic Research at the Swedish Research Council 2018-2021.
Member of the editorial board of Ruukku – Studies in Artistic Research 2012 – 2021.
Having the opportunity to spend a week, or actually ten days on Örö, I wanted to explore some new ideas, besides continuing my usual routines. These include visiting The Pine Next Door daily while I am on the island, and talking to or with the pine on the western shore at least once during each trip. This time I recorded the seventh and last Tell it to the Pine (Tala om det för tallen), in Swedish, as usual. The new thing I wanted to explore, which does not really fit into my current project Meetings with Remarkable and Unremarkable Trees, is not really new, but a further development of something I explored in Nida in September 2017, namely walking (see Walking in Nida). And doing that with an action camera on my forehead. The long road through the island on Örö, from south to north or north to south, covered in cobble stones and built in Russian times is called Pitkä ikävä, a Finnish name that translates as the long boredom and also the long yearning. The road is long and almost straight and uncomfortable to walk on at times, but also inviting to record on video, because it traverses the whole island. Therefore I have now recorded five walks from south to north and back, in order to combine them somehow, perhaps not in a grid as I did in Nida, but as a diptych with images inserted into each other. How that will work I do not know yet, but at least I have enough material. And because the half an hour walk is hard to time to be of equal length both ways, I quickly discovered I should begin and end each walk by standing still for a while. Here are the first and last images from my first walk from north to south.
And the first and last from south to north as well, which I actually began with, because the residency house is near the southern tip.
During my fifth walk on a sunny windy day, the same images look rather different:
I am especially happy with the end of the last walk towards the north, because the video image has the horizon almost in balance, by accident. Because the camera is on my forehead I have no idea if it is sliding to either side, or what the image looks like while I walk. Something to experiment with in the future…
Performing Landscape 