I can't believe they destroyed you. -a memoir of a special space and time, 2021

Recycled material

Artist Bachelor´s degree work. It has been exhibited in the BA show at Uniarts Helsinki, 24.9-17.10.2021. (See video footage of the gallery view in link below.) There is a screen outside the black box, that´s counting down the time for the main video to start inside the black box. The video inside the black box starts every 10 minutes and is 7.34min long. The installation can be described as a spacial, immersive video installation. When you enter the video installation, it’s like going underground to an amusement park. Or a tragicomic club. The main point of the work, is to get the viewer to sit down and slowly start recognizing more and more parts of the installation. The paintings on the walls, the fog that smells like the woods, the weird breathing of the lump on the ground etc. Everything comes more close to you as time passes in the installation. Like the small vibration you can feel beneath you, every now and then, when sitting on the latex “chair”. The video work is what glues all parts of the installation inside the black box together. It describes how everything is linked. The video work in the installation, takes us back to the first lock down in 2020. The work is a personal story about the time when you could not feel safe among people, and about how I found a wasteland near my home. The wasteland became a safe place for walks every day and a place where I could ponder on everything that had happened. In the video work, I also reflect on why I have studied the Siberian tundra for so long. About why I have been so obsessed with the methane lumps and craters that occur there. This because I come to realize, that my interest for the tundra, came from possessive, impulsive thinking. This compulsiveness has to do with my diagnosis; anxiety disorder. With the lock down though, the compulsive thoughts about the end of the world slowly diminished. Because a global crisis (corona) and a personal crisis (my abortion), made me realize, that you as a human being, can overcome even the worst crises in life. The spring of 2020 therefore became my personal growth story. Now presented in the form of a video installation. The work also gets the viewer to think about their own approach to crises. What tools and resources does one have at hand to deal with chaos? However, it is important for me, to end the video with an aesthetic of the self-help trend and with a hint of humor. This, because I wanted to convey a sense of hope and bring forward the thought that we can cope with different crises in life together. This, if we remember to see ourselves with a pinch of salt and remember to lean on each other.

https://www.annabelkajetski.com/new-page-4