Fabric books/Retkikirja
ongoingI use a needle and thread and other sewing and mark-making tools to record our environment. These objects will be on view during the exhibition. They are tactile, the audience is invited to touch the pages. This quality was becoming obsolete and almost scandalous in the times of covid19 pandemic. The fabrics and other materials that the books are made from allow for them to be washed and ironed.
This project is about how we view and see the world around us and the ways we observe our environment. This is why they take the form of sketchbooks, as means to record quickly and boldly our environment, or contemplatively and slowly the images in our mind. These books reference guide books of places of local and historical importance.
Mekin pääsimme reissullamme osallistumaan elämykselliseen PISTO-taidetyöpajaan, jonka Seinäjoen Taidehalli järjesti yhdessä Taitokeskuksen kanssa. Taiteilija Anastasia Artemevan ohjaamassa työpajassa pääsimme kokeilemaan tekstiilitaiteen tekemistä itse, kun saimme tehtäväksi luoda kankaisen luonnosvihkon. “Luonnostelu” kankaalle kirjoen on keskittymistä sekä kärsivällisyyttä vaativaa puuhaa: tekeminen on hidasta eikä kuvia voi pyyhkiä kumilla pois, mutta niitä voi halutessaan muokata. On myös kiinnostavaa, kuinka neulalla ja langalla merkintöjä tehdessä syntyy kankaan kääntöpuolelle ikään kuin “haamu” siitä, mitä näemme toisella puolella. Myös tällä kääntöpuolen varjokuvalla on hauska leikitellä. Ihastuin kirjontatöihin työpajan ansiosta ihan valtavasti: työskentely on kiireiselle mielelle ihanan meditatiivista puuhaa. Hurahdin oman luonnosvihkoni väkertämiseen niin antaumuksella, että olen jatkanut sen työstämistä vielä kotiin päästyänikin. Tämä oli todella inspiroiva kokemus!
-Jenni Rotonen, https://pupulandia.fi/2021/06/22/seinajoki-yllattava-kulttuurikohde-kesareissuille/
HIAP residency Spring 2021, Connecting Points program, Suomenlinna, Helsinki. 
Image: Sheung Yiu @sheungyiuphoto - HIAP Suomenlinna Open Studios Spring 2021. Many thanks for support to Iraiida Lukka-de Groot.
Image: Sheung Yiu @sheungyiuphoto - HIAP Suomenlinna Open Studios Spring 2021. Many thanks for support to Iraiida Lukka-de Groot.
Image: Sheung Yiu @sheungyiuphoto - HIAP Suomenlinna Open Studios Spring 2021. Many thanks for support to Iraiida Lukka-de Groot.
Image: Sheung Yiu @sheungyiuphoto - HIAP Suomenlinna Open Studios Spring 2021. Many thanks for support to Iraiida Lukka-de Groot.Fabric books is a part of Recreation is a series of projects and multimedia installations around the act of sewing, the spaces of confinement, rest, and time. Through visual, performative and dialogical processes I will investigate assumed social roles, ideas of judgement, social and antisocial being, as well as personal and collective boundaries.
Kunsthalle Seinäjoki, june 2021, workshopI use these sketchbooks especially when traveling or camping and for this reason I look for ways to create lightweight, compact sets to take with me. I reappropriate old tins and cans and plastic bags, and use camping equipment such as Swiss Army knife as the tools for working. Taking the ideas of plein air and the self-lead residencies that artists of the 19th century created for themselves by going to the countryside for the summer months, this series of sketches are carried out during camping trips.
I am constantly in the process of developing a kit, a set of materials and tools that I carry with me. The use of a variety of shapes and textures draw from open-ended toys and games for children, including the techniques and the aesthetics of Waldorf toys. Hand dyed using natural materials found at home like coffee and tea and frozen berries and beets leftover from dying Easter eggs. I used recycled materials like leftover fabric and packaging material.
You are invited to join the workshops where we sketch and explore together.
Image: Anastasia Artemeva. Venäjän tiede- ja kulttuurikeskus, Helsinki, Fabric book workshop with young people, 2017
Image: Anastasia Artemeva. Venäjän tiede- ja kulttuurikeskus, Helsinki, Fabric book workshop with young people, 2017