Points of coherence are encounters of close juxtaposition and interconnectedness with the natural environment. As studies of connection, the artworks are based on respecting the independent self-imposed nature as equal. The works derivate from my observations of the characteristics of nature´s organisms. As such, they can be seen as initiations of communication and an outlook of a possible world beneath the surface. I have aimed at generating a sense of chiming corresponding frequency – coherence, which increase weakens the sense of separation.
A love letter to a tree is a recording of a self-imprinted change and an artwork of my affectionate joy of connection with the trees. It utilises the underground networking ability between a tree and a fungus as a channel of communication. My messenger is Pleurotus Pulmonarius fungus living in the decaying birches, which I have incubated inside the artworks installed in the old mixed forest. The transformation in the works is guided by nature´s rhythm and the regulations of the ecosystem concurrently delivering the message in the network of mycelium and trees. The documentation of the transformation has started in August 2021.
The short video Sharing skins originates from the urge to understand how to connect and encounter the realm of the trees? The human body is seen as a vessel for human consciousness but does a tree have consciousness and where does it reside? As the name suggests, the artwork refers to sharing a skin with another, which evokes a thought of perceiving a tree as a tree-bodily being communicating in its manner with the nearby human body. In the video, the animations of different 3D scanned trees are portals inside the tree transporting skins into nesting and separating. The work asks if the encounter occurs in a meditative state of parallel existence, which is eventually easy to experience for one walking with open senses in the presence of the trees?
Points of coherence was implemented in 2021-2022 with the support of the British interactive arts studio Invisible Flock in the Cost of Innovation residency. The scans of the various trees are done in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park where the studio resides. Photography- and video-based works have captured the performance with the trees by mover-performer Anne Niskanen. Cost of Innovation -residency was supported by The Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland and the finishing of the works by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland. FrostBit Software Lab in the Lapland University of Applied Sciences introduced me to the animation of point cloud files.
The opening is on Friday 3th February at 6pm-8pm. Welcome! Unfortunately, Miia Kettunen cannot attend.