Pyöreät muodot / Rounded Figures
Suddenly the weather got really crispy here and the temperature went close to zero, so what was the southerner to do except head to the fleamarkets. I had brought several jackets with me in late August but they were proven insufficient by the nothern standards and all of you who know me, are very aware of the fact that I cannot stand cold at all. Luckily I found this black pilot jacket from the first fleamarket that I went to, although at first I discarded it for its hipster-quality but soon came back to my senses and tried it on: only to find out that it was the warmest thing I have had on in a long time. I paid five euro for it and it has been my constant companion since, goodbye my beautiful but cold Ivana Helsinki poncho (mine is dark brown/white)!
Here the practical approach to everything sort of rubs on you and therefore, I have used my Fjällräven backpack when bicycling around the town. That backpack is really worth its price! Just to give you an idea, I emptied it to show what it withholds: on Friday I had my iPad, iPhone, iPen (only joking), trusted MAC lipstick / Morange, wallet, calender, analogical camera, films, helmet and leather gloves in it and it was not even full. I even went grocery shopping after photography class and stuffed all my shoppings into the backpack.
The two photos on the left side of my first collage are from the exhibition that I went to see in Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova two weeks ago. The artist, Jarno Vesala, was chosen as the Young Artist of the Year 2013 and his exhibition has first been seen in Tampere and now it came to Turku. What an experience! I still have those intense feelings that I felt when moving around from one installation to another. I strongly encourage everybody who has the chance to go and see the works live. You are faced with unpleasent feelings of anxiety, fear and this underlying uncomfortable feeling in your spine – and it was a breathtaking experience! My man who is not that partial to just any exhibition was as well blown away, and said it was one of the best exhibitions that he has seen. Many of the pieces in the exhibition manages to create an atmosphere where one is strongly affected with different emotions. For me the one of the key pieces was the installation (shown in the photo) where the artist has placed a huge window hanging from the ceiling into the last room of the exhibition. The window has a mechanism inside that creates the illusion that it is raining heavily outside; on the rainy side of the window there is a small girl watching to the other side through the glass. And the most intriguing part in that installation is that the viewer can take both aspects of the piece by standing either on the outside with the girl, or moving to the other side of the bordering window and to become the one inside, watching the girl facing you in the rain. This kind of examination of power relations is very intresting to me. So I strongly encourage: Go and see!
The other collage is something related to the contents of my backpack: the Nikon that I have there is an analogical camera and it has totally bewitched me. I love the fact that I have to put careful consideration what is worthwhile shooting and when is that important decisive moment. Of course, I have just started, so there has been numerous bad shots: grey and unfocused photos etc. But all in all, the results are far out better than any I have taken with my digital Canon, so I am sticking with this for now. The photos in the collage are just random shots from the farmer’s market where my lovely friend Anna took me and then two photos taken from the town.
Oh yes, I must not forget to mention the lovely James Blake that has been my morning soundtrack lately, now as well actually. So let me introduce you if you are not already acquainted (my English is influenced by the Downton Abbey -series): James Blake.