Cottage Studio Infusion

Hallands Konstmuseum, Halmstad 
 Apr-May 2014

The exhibition was about turning away from everyday life, leaving all obligations; parenthood, partnership, job and other duties to reflect and experience solitude, less impressions, less consumption and reestablish quality of life. It was an anti stress action where I infused myself with the emptiness and simplicity of an old abandoned cottage. It is a reflection on time, stress and possessing - how does it affect us on an individual and general level with an increasing number of stress related health conditions in our society? Is less sometimes more and can we still become satisfied? If you ask me I´d be positive therefore I like to highlight a slower pace to begin with to promote division and regain meaning and depth.

House warming party in Cottage Studio

Invitations for a house warming party at the Cottage Studio were spread in Palomettäntie, Ojakylä in Ii. Locals, artists from cultural centre KultuuriKauppila and a school class came by to see us. Stories were told and the children brought drawings of Liisu and Yrjö who were siblings and the last who lived there.

Cottage Studio in Ii

Helsingin Sanomat 2013

Helsingin Sanomat 2013

My project in Ii, Finland summer 2013 was to withdraw from everyday life and find an abandoned house to make into an art studio and infuse myself with its solitude and emptiness to reclaim an alternative lifestyle. Together with my colleague Helena Kaikkonen I found this gorgeous cottage and was able to use it for nearly three weeks.

Resumé of pieces left inside the cottage

• Liisu wardrobe – 38 wooden mini clothes sculptures in the attic
• Rehabilitation of a table – rags wrapped around the kitchen table
• Nourishing of the walls – paper and wallpaper on a wall inside the cottage behind the red sofa, white bureau and sewing machine
• Restoration of roses – roses from an old table cloth patched onto the exterior of the house.
• Two Baby Liisu dolls - photos of a Liisu child mounted on wood
• Liisu with secret man – photo of bookmark from another abandoned cottage mounted on wood inside the cottage
• Portrait of a man – an enlargement of a photo of a man found in another abandoned cottage mounted on fabrics. On the bureau you can also find the original photo of the man.
• Spread photos inside the cottage – the photos on the windows are photos from another abandoned house, a curtain and two moths. The photos in the bureau in the box with postcards are photos of postcards from another additional abandoned cottage and photos of photos of postcards are also from additional abandoned cottages.
• Child´s shoe – an old shoe from an abandoned house.