Apurahat ja residenssipaikat

Taide

Careful Talk: Some words crossed out, some words underlined

Hakemuksen tiivistelmä

Careful Talk is a multidisciplinary project that continues my work harnessing text, poetry, and moving image as tools for working with the insufficiency of language. The outcomes will be: Visual: –Group shows: ‘In Various Stages of Ruins’ at Lappeenranta Taidemuseo, and ‘their room washed with hot light’ in Turku –Post-production on my film ‘I Spit on Your Genre’ for a solo exhibition –New project ‘A Single Voice in an Empty Space’ Written: –Poetry mentorship with The Poetry School –Facilitating an online workshop of queer poets –Publish dual-language (Fin/Eng) poetry pamphlet I have worked with the insufficiency of language through text installations and sculptures, monologues for film, poetry and singing. I see Careful Talk both as a methodology and an umbrella term under which all my work with language sits. It nods to love and care, as much as to censorship and speechlessness. If language has the power to shape and define experience, then shouldn't we be careful with our words? I want to further grasp the diverse ways that text and the voice can be used within visual art, and develop a new project about the voice in and of itself. There’s a certain fluency that people tend to have when hearing/receiving the voice, especially in singing. Barthes wrote of the ‘grain’ of the voice as the trace of the body in the ‘ephemeral’ aural performance. It is a material quality that is experienced in the body of the listener. Much can be inferred from this grain, not only signifiers of ‘who’ the singer is (age, gender) but also hesitancy, affect, fatigue. A universe in the smallest of inflections, full of ways of conveying without words. In what ways does the voice grant an immediacy of access that other mediums may not? What could a sung vocal in art mean and do?

I received funding for two years to support my practice across various projects, finalising long term ones and developing new ideas. The majority of the outcomes I predicted in my initial application were things I followed through with across the two years, e.g.:

–Finished video work for group shows: ‘In Various Stages of Ruins’ at Lappeenranta Taidemuseo
–Organised exhibition ‘In Various Stages of Ruins’ at Lappeenranta Taidemuseo, and ‘their room washed with hot light’ in Turku with collaborator Eeva-Maija Pulkkinen
–Started new project centred around the voice
–Facilitated monthly online workshop of queer poets
–Published dual-language (Fin/Eng) poetry pamphlet

I had planned to go into post-production on my Rape Revenge project, I continued to work on it but I didn’t go into post-production in the grant period. I also did not secure poetry mentorship with The Poetry School due to their lack of co-ordination. I instead took smaller classes and workshops but hope to have a longer-term mentor in the future.

I received invitations to screenings and exhibitions that I didn’t anticipate at the time of applying, which changed my scheduling and workload. As mentioned in my previous report I was invited to a solo exhibition at Wäinö Aaltonen Museum in 2023, and in 2024 I had a solo show in Hippolyte gallery, to exhibit the video that I made for Lappeenranta in Helsinki. From that exhibition I sold the video to Wihuri Foundation, my first ever sale. These exhibitions were two major moments for me and highlights of my grant period.

With collaborator Shia Conlon we decided to establish Trans Library Helsinki as a physical library and community space in Helsinki, which took up a lot of 2024. The project existed as an idea but once we applied for funding it moved very fast. The space has so far been very successful, it’s well loved and lively and this project has been some of the most meaningful work of my life.

Takaisin apurahalistaukseen