In Ruscica’s works, the relationship between signs, objects and concepts is an unstable one. Prior context always forms a base for new layers of meaning. The phenomena and forms depicted by these works evade straightforward interpretation and binary categories.
Self reflexivity, both of form and medium, is elemental to the works. In the video work No Dot on the I (2021), materials and sounds test out their own qualities; their legibility and nameability. About Us (refrain to refrain) (2022), a new video to be premiered at Kunsthalle Helsinki, detaches from linguistic communication to rely instead on voice and bodily expression only. An algorithm disrupts the assumed linearity of the work, and the video starts to unfold randomly.
The new wall paintings adapt to the Kunsthalle’s architecture – expanding and stretching out according to the dimensions of the building. The sunlight filtering through the windows projects images into the space, fluid ones, that keep shifting and changing, depending on the time of day and intensity of the light.
The exhibition is curated by Piia Oksanen. Taneli Viljanen has written a prose poem related to the exhibition.
Jani Ruscica (b. 1978) was born in Savonlinna, Finland and spent their childhood in Italy. They presently live and work in Helsinki. Ruscica studied at the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, as well as at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. www.janiruscica.com
