(I’m reminded of a work I tried to do last year about chairs. I was thinking, for example, when I wasn’t hitting it off with some therapists I tried to see, it was because the chairs they had were all too soft and that made me dissociate (almost already before I’d sat down). But I did think there was more going on than just the chairs, when bringing in a harder chair to sit on didn’t change my experience of the encounters that much.)
I think my brain (or the capacities that have been labeled as ”the brain”) is having a hard time letting go of the status it’s used to. It’s having a hard time coming around to the fact that the tummy might be actually where a lot of what we conceptualize as thinking occurs. It’s having a hard time letting go of its autonomy (however hallucinatory the idea of that has been), a hard time accepting the fact that unless the lungs, the nerves, a stomach, the throat (and so on) are co-operating, the ”brain” is limited to 0.3% of it’s capabilities and resources. Today, when I think about my body communicating with the environment I’m in, without it ever coming into consciousness for ’me’, my body feels strong. Strong, because it feels active, alive and like it has in a way independent agency – and enough agency to guide ’me’ better than my brain (which is embedded in my body anyway).
untitled, but calm excitement explores forms of hospitality, gentleness and drawing connections touch, sensory needs and bodily relations to objects
untitled, but calm excitement was formed by collaboration methods/wants/desires conversation and presence
untitled, but calm excitement wants to create space for play/needs/embodied (be)longing
untitled, but calm excitement has (for example) a chair, a sand drawing, textile surfaces, a hug glass, a rock and photoprints
Aleksandra Kuokkanen is a Helsinki based artist interested in the meeting points of personal and shared experiences, and opportunities in forming bodily relationships to art objects. They have been recently exploring notions such as fantasy, and touch as a form of communication. They have studied at Pekka Halonen academy, Art School Maa, and are now working on their BFA in the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki.
Eeti Piiroinen (they/them) is a bit lost but hopeful, insecure and defiant. In their art they examine the (im)possibility of experiences of connectedness and belonging for example through considerations of context and selective attention. Next they wish to dive deep into trans her/their/histories, continue to study intersectional feminism, learn to find calm excitement, write indulgently and walk up and down hills. They’re currently living and working in Helsinki and pursuing their Master’s at the Academy of Fine Arts.
