Thursday August 11th, 7pm
$5
This event, hosted at the Hollywood Theatre, is in conjunction with Elina Tuhkanen’s solo exhibition, Pilose Crux: Performative Sculptures from Finland, showing at Nationale August 10 – September 4, 2011. A small selection of videos will be screened with commentary by Tuhkanen, followed by a panel discussion on art, ecology, and artist residencies featuring Tuhkanen, co-curator Emily Henderson, Finnish artist— and co-founder of the Mustarinda Artist Residency—Alma Heikkilä, and Portland poet Alicia Cohen, Ph.D. Within the dialogue, Cohen will offer an eco-critical and symbolic perspective, tying together similarities between the Pacific Northwest and Finland, while Henderson will co-moderate the discussion and provide context for this international exchange.
In this casual discussion, we will explore themes ranging from the concept of ecology fueling artistic practice to ideas of how art can be a vehicle for environmental and cultural change. The conversation will also give an opportunity for visiting Finnish artists Tuhkanen and Heikkilä to elaborate on each of their own art practices and talk about being co-founders and administrators of the Mustarinda Residency and Association in Finland.
VIDEOS
Foliae Lucubratio (Leaves Working by Lamplight)
4:3 2008 3.50 min
This video will be shown in two repeating parts, a silent version of the sequence before the original version with sound. Tuhkanen is interested in the viewers inventing their own story for the silent image and in their reaction for the audible version.
With Regret I was a Haole
4:3 2008 2 min
Boundaries are crossed on multiple levels.
It was more than this
4:3 2010 3 min
Searching for life in a photograph.
BIOGRAPHIES
Elina Tuhkanen is a multimedia artist who spent her youth between Atlanta, Georgia and her grandmother’s farm in Ilvesjoki, Finland. She earned her BFA in painting in 2001 from the University of Georgia at Athens and she recently obtained her MFA in sculpture from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. Tuhkanen’s work has been shown at the the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, East/West Project in Berlin, and various galleries throughout Finland, Norway, and Estonia. Tuhkanen has curated a number of exhibitions in Finland and has an upcoming exhibition in Ameno, Italy. She currently resides in Helsinki, Finland. Pilose Crux (August 10 – September 4, 2011) marks her first time exhibiting at Nationale.
Alma Heikkilä (b. 1984) is a painting and installation artist who lives and works in both Helsinki and Hyrynsalmi, Finland. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2009. Heikkilä is the co founder of two artist run projects: the Helsinki-based gallery Oksasenkatu11 and the Hyrynsalmi-based Mustarinda Association and artist residency. Her work has been shown in galleries and museums in Finland, Sweden, and Estonia. She has upcoming exhibitions at Asilo Bianco in Ameno, Italy and galleria Huuto in Helsinki, Finland.
Alicia Cohen received her PhD from the Poetics Program at SUNY Buffalo in 2004 and has taught at Reed College and Portland State University. She has written on the work of Emily Dickinson, Jack Spicer, Andy Goldsworthy, Leslie Scalapino and others, and has published two books of poems, Bear (Handwritten Press, 2000) and Debts and Obligations (O Books, 2009), which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award.
Emily Henderson is an arts administrator and curator from Portland, Oregon. She earned her BA from Portland State University in Art History & Sculpture and has been working in visual arts in Portland for the last 8 years. Formerly Associate Director at galleryHOMELAND (2007 – 2010), she has a deep personal connection to the local arts community, working to strengthen relationships with international artists and to foster development of artists’ careers.
Image: still from With Regret I was a Haole
