Saturday Night Fever by Lennart Engels
This video exhibits a performance in which Lennart Engels approaches rock climbing as an artistic practice to expose the underlying creative processes that occur in the act.
The Birth of Breath by Janne Melajoki
“Do we breathe or are we breathed? The sanskrit prana, “breathing forth,” refers to the source and force of life and the vibratory energy of all manifestation”
The course was from the very beginning an introspective healing process by finding burned traces of past experiences. A deep study of mind and body which eventually led to becoming stronger and balanced by facing and accepting own weaknesses.
Experimenting with charcoal has seemed to me that for now the powder is the most giving and at the same time forgiving. It has its own messy nature, but an ability to transform in many potential outcomes. An fascinating thing lies in the material as it has many forms and stories in the narration. The temporality of past, present and the future and how the traces, the hints of what happened, are left in.
Even though we humans tend to believe we can control and tame nature, the inner and outer world, we all live under the same forces of life. The weight of the past winters broke and burned out the false belief of the Katajainen kansa -myth. The burden and fears of accepting weakness. However, facing it can become the strongest energy to inhale. The calmness and acceptance lied in the gentle breath that was hidden inside. The traces just waited to be discovered to blow new life in the ashes full of invisible sparks.
With these insights my final outcome was an art performance of my own creative journey. A symbolic movement with the aspects of material, time & energy combined to become visible.
Material: Powdered Charcoal, Photograph
Photographs: Janne Melajoki unless otherwise stated
Quote: Ronnberg, Ami, and Kathleen Martin, (2010) The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images, chapter Breath, p. 16
More Personal Exploration projects:
Soil Care Products by Mira Niittymäki
What if we treated soil as we treat our skin? After all, soil is the skin of the Earth, and our own skin is soil for billions of microbes. The project investigates ways to care for the degraded land and barren soil resulting from human actions. It also speculates on a future where soil care would be one of our daily routines. The work also satirically comments on the oversaturated field of beauty care products of our time when more than ever we should focus our care to more fundamental issues.
The moment before the music begins by Nahyun Kim
This is an instrument which is Jangdok-shaped, a traditional Korean jar that is buried in the soil to ripen Kimchi. The reason why the food made in Jangdok is delicious is that until just before it comes out to the world, they adapted to the environment in the soil and prepared to become delectable. When we play this instrument, the moment we have to focus is not the moment when the sound comes out, but the moment when we adapt to this space, focusing solely on the instrument and all thoughts disappear. Wait for silence and concentration in your mind like the soil does.