Video documentation of performances

Video installations

First exhibition

Other experiments

Other exhibitions

Year of the Ox – Riding a Buoy

HD video 16:9, 50 min

1. A rust-coloured scarf wrapped around my shoulders, I sit on a buoy on the island of Harakka in Helsinki approximately once a week during a year from 25 January 2009 to 6 February 2010.

2. The buoy videoed on the same occasions.

http://www.av-arkki.fi/en/works/year-of-the-ox-riding-a-buoy/

Year of the Ox – Riding a Buoy

HD video 16:9, 50 min

1. A rust-coloured scarf wrapped around my shoulders, I sit on a buoy on the island of Harakka in Helsinki approximately once a week during a year from 25 January 2009 to 6 February 2010.

2. The buoy videoed on the same occasions.

http://www.av-arkki.fi/en/works/year-of-the-ox-riding-a-buoy/

Year of the Ox – On Rock and Wood

HD-video 16:9, 50 min

With a rust-coloured scarf wrapped around my shoulders, I sit on rocks and pieces of wood in various parts of the world (La Gomera on the Canary Islands, Boa Vista in Cape Verde, Kadermo in Finland, and Brac in Croatia) during the year 2009.

http://www.av-arkki.fi/en/works/year-of-the-ox-on-rock-and-wood/

 

Year of the Ox – On Rock and Wood (2010) on display in Pitkäniemi Hospital in Tampere 31.3.-30.7. 2017. 

 

Year of the Ox – Riding a Buoy. Here and Now – Performance Art in Finland. Aboa Vetus Ars Nova, Turku 1.2.-28.4.2013.

 

 

Screenings:

 

Year of the Ox – In a Yoke 1-2. Experimenta 1 at 21st Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival, Curta Cinema 27.10. – 6.11.2011.



Performances:


 

Annual Rings, in Memory of Harakka -performance event 2.8.2009 


Publications

 

“Revisiting the Rusty Ring – Ecofeminism Today?”  PARtake Journal vol 3 no 1 2020. https://doi.org/10.33011/partake.v3i1.473


“Riding and Ox in Search of an Ox” in Annette Arlander (ed.). This and That – Essays on Live Art and Performance Studies. Episodi 04. University of the Arts Helsinki, Theatre Academy 2014, 212-230. https://taju.uniarts.fi/handle/10024/6997

 

“Performing Time Through Place”. In Riku Roihankorpi and Teemu Paavolainen (eds.) SPACE–EVENT–AGENCY–EXPERIENCE. Open Access E-Publication of the DREX Project. Centre for Practice as Research in Theatre. University of Tampere 2012. https://taju.uniarts.fi/handle/10024/5982

Härän vuosi – Oxens år –Year of the Ox

 

The video works in the exhibition were performed and video filmed during the year of the ox 2009, on Harakka Island off Helsinki or in tourist resorts around the world. In all places I have used a rust coloured scarf for finding connections to various landscapes. On Harakka Island I returned once a week to sites related to the military past of the place. I am riding a rusty buoy on the hill, walking in circles tied to an iron ring on the cliff and squatting in a niche in the wall. I have played with the idea of riding an ox, walking in a yoke like an ox, the site-specific taken literally as a kind of destiny. The main purpose is to bring attention to changes in the landscape due to shifting seasons, weather and climate; and thus also to demonstrate time, to show the passage of time. The works can also be linked to traditional Ox-herding pictures, aids in finding one self, though here the emphasis is less on spiritual practice than on experiencing the physical environment.

 

These works are part of a series of yearly projects started in 2002. It is based on the Chinese calendar and its cycle of twelve years with each year named after a specific animal. Each year I have looked for a new perspective on the landscape, a new aspect of the environment and a new kind of relationship between the human body and the place. My working method utilises the traditions of performance art and video art and moves in the border zone between them.

 

Thank you: Harakka ry., Theatre Academy, Stina Krook Foundation

 

Year of the Ox - Walking in Circles

HD video 16:9, 1 h 30 min.

1. A rust coloured scarf around my shoulders, I walk in a circle tied with a chain to an iron ring on a cliff on the South Eastern shore of Helsinki’s Harakka Island once a week for a year, between 25 January 2009 and 6 February 2010.

2. The cliff shot on the same occasions.

https://www.av-arkki.fi/works/year-of-the-ox-walking-in-circles/


A shorter version is edited of the same material:

Year of the Ox - Walking in Circles (Short)

HD video 16:9, 19 min. 16 sec.

http://www.av-arkki.fi/en/works/year-of-the-ox-walking-in-circles-short/

 

Year of the Ox - Walking in Circles

HD video 16:9, 1 h 30 min.

1. A rust coloured scarf around my shoulders, I walk in a circle tied with a chain to an iron ring on a cliff on the South Eastern shore of Helsinki’s Harakka Island once a week for a year, between 25 January 2009 and 6 February 2010.

2. The cliff shot on the same occasions.

https://www.av-arkki.fi/works/year-of-the-ox-walking-in-circles/

 

Sketches and Exercises 

DV –video 4:3, 60 min. 58 sec.

With a rust coloured scarf around my shoulders I play with plants and roots growing in the sand in Cape Verde’s Boa Vista Island in 2009.

(Sketches 15 min. 36 sec.; Exercises 45 min. 22 sec.)

http://www.av-arkki.fi/en/works/sketches-and-exercises/

The works presented in the exhibition in Muu Gallery were:

 

Day and Night of the Ox and Year of the Ox - Walking in circles (short), two projections in the corner to the left

Year of the Ox - Riding a Buoy 1 and Year of the Ox - On Rock and Wood, two projections in the corner to the right 

Year of the Ox - Sitting in a Wall, projection in Muu Studio

Sketches and Exercises, in a monitor in the lobby. 


No documentation photos from the exhibition exist, unfortunately, except this pressfoto:

Annual Rings

HD video 16:9, 11 min 12 sec.

A rust colored scarf around my shoulders, I walk in a circle tied with a chain to an iron ring on a cliff on the South Eastern shore of Helsinki’s Harakka Island and pour rust-colored water on the snow.

http://www.av-arkki.fi/en/works/annual-rings/

Day and Night of the Ox – Härän vuorokausi

HD video, 16:9, 14 min. 15 sec.

With a rust-coloured scarf around my shoulders, I walk in a circle tied with a chain to an iron ring on a cliff on the South Eastern shore of Helsinki’s Harakka Island every two hours during a day and night between 1 May 2009 at 6pm and 2 May at 6pm.

http://www.av-arkki.fi/en/works/day-and-night-of-the-ox/

Year of the Ox – Sitting in the Wall

HD-video 16:9,  42 min. 44 sec.

1. A rust-coloured scarf around my shoulders, I sit in a niche in the wall on the island of Harakka in Helsinki approximately once a week during a year from 25 January 2009 to 6 February 2010.

2. The niche in the wall videoed on the same occasions. 

http://www.av-arkki.fi/en/works/year-of-the-ox-sitting-in-the-wall/

Year of the Ox – Sitting in the Wall

HD-video 16:9,  42 min. 44 sec.

1. A rust-coloured scarf around my shoulders, I sit in a niche in the wall on the island of Harakka in Helsinki approximately once a week during a year from 25 January 2009 to 6 February 2010.

2. The niche in the wall videoed on the same occasions. 

http://www.av-arkki.fi/en/works/year-of-the-ox-sitting-in-the-wall/

Year of the Ox - In a Yoke 1-2

HD video 16:9,  5 min 10 sec.

1. Wrapped in a rust-colored scarf and with a piece of wood on my shoulders, I sit on rocks on the Eastern shore of Helsinki’s Harakka Island approximately once a week for a year from 25 January 2009 to 6 February 2010.

2. The rocks videoed on the same occasions.

http://www.av-arkki.fi/en/works/year-of-the-ox-in-a-yoke-1-2/

Year of the Ox - In a Yoke 1-2

HD video 16:9,  5 min 10 sec.

1. Wrapped in a rust-colored scarf and with a piece of wood on my shoulders, I sit on rocks on the Eastern shore of Helsinki’s Harakka Island approximately once a week for a year from 25 January 2009 to 6 February 2010.

2. The rocks videoed on the same occasions.

http://www.av-arkki.fi/en/works/year-of-the-ox-in-a-yoke-1-2/

AA