27.11.2023
Do you remember if the color of the river has changed?
Do you feel the proximity of water? Extremity.
The wonderland is coming. It’s a bit like being in a rainforest.
Are you so picky that you want the original nature?
We will start rowing here very soon.
But that’s how we used to think about it, everything that goes into the water just disappears.
Lately, we've been contemplating the dispersion of authorship, the blurring of the outlines of artwork, and the lightness that could be present both in the production process and the physical structures of the artwork itself. On the other hand, how a public artwork could be realized within existing structures?
In September and October, we participated in the Porin Juhlaviikot exhibition organized by Galleria 3H+K / NYTE ry with our artwork Sensory Flagging (Aistiliputus). The artwork is created in collaboration with cultural anthropologist Inkeri Aula and it’s based on twelve flags, which are hung on existing flagpoles in urban space. The physical part of the artwork, the flags, can fit in a backpack.
The whimsical and poetic Sensory Flagging highlights the sensory observations of the local residents regarding the changes and impacts of the Kokemäenjoki River, as well as its ghosts. The metaphor of ghosts represents fragile ecological relationships, the imbalance of which threatens our living environments.
Photo: Rasmus Forssell / Galleria 3+K
In addition to our group, the team behind the artwork included numerous local residents who shared their experiences of their relationship with the water during sensobiographic walks conducted three years ago. Material cooperation also involved the University of Eastern Finland's SENSOTRA project.
With great enthusiasm, the city of Pori and five housing company boards, five property managers, three maintenance companies, and one shopping center all joined in the execution of the project. It was indicative that when we asked the city's administrative director for permission to use the flagpoles at the Porin Raatihuone (Pori City Hall) for the artwork, he granted it in under two minutes – there was no sign of unnecessary bureaucracy. Additionally, during the opening performance, volunteers carried the flags throughout the city.
Based on the material from the sensory walks around the Kokemäenjoki River area, Inkeri Aula wrote an article titled "Creative environmental relationships enhance resilience: sensobiographic walks at Kokemäenjoki river," which was published this month as part of the interdisciplinary collection "Understanding Marine Changes" (edited by Savitri Jetoo, Jaana Kouri, Silja Laine, Nina Tynkkynen, Anna Törnroos, 2023). The article argues for the significance of local knowledge and sensory environmental relationships and also sheds light on the content and processes of our previous artworks.
The article "Creative environmental relationships enhance resilience: Sensobiographic walks at Kokemäenjoki river" was part of Sensory Flagging and available for reading in the gallery space. It's great that the Satakunnan Kansa critic Tuuli Penttinen-Lampisuo noted in her exhibition review on October 9th that “the ideas raised in Aula's article about people's narrative environmental relationships and knowledge production related to places provide insights into many other artworks in the Juhlaviikot exhibition”.
See video, photos and read more about the artwork:
www.niskanensalo.com/sensory-flagging
Read more about Porin Juhlaviikot program:
www.nyte.fi/porinjuhlaviikot/taiteilijat-2023
Read more about the publication:
www.elgaronline.com/edcollbook/book/9781035311118/9781035311118.xml
Read the review:
www.satakunnankansa.fi/kulttuuri/art-2000009909519.html
Our small-scale triptych video artwork, Uncanny Sky I-III (2023), is part of the Color Theory online exhibition juried by Kaegan Sparks at Site:Brooklyn Gallery.
Uncanny Sky I-III observes new, strange, and slow color variations in the sky caused by particles, using the metaphor of environmental ghosts. The 'ghosts' creating new hues in the sky include moisture from storm low-pressure systems, particles released from the combustion of fossil fuels, sand from sandstorms, smoke from forest fires, ash from volcanic eruptions, and even pollen.
Clouds represented a side of nature that the mainstream of physics had passed by, a side that was at once fuzzy and detailed, structured and unpredictable (…) For as long as the world has had physicists inquiring into the laws of nature, it has suffered a special ignorance about disorder in the atmosphere (…) As the revolution in chaos runs its course, the best physicists find themselves returning without embarrassment to phenomena on a human scale. They study not just galaxies but clouds. (James Gleick, Chaos: Making a new science, Abacus, London, 1988, pp. 3–8).
Read more about the exhibition:
www.sitebrooklyn.com/color-theory
Read more about the artwork:
www.niskanensalo.com/uncannysky
At the moment we are focusing on planning the summer season 2024. More on this soon!
8.8.2023
During 2023, we have been working on new pieces and exhibitions. Here's a brief summary of past and upcoming highlights throughout the year.
We are planning and programming a site-sensitive media work that continuously produces a slowly moving, disappearing, painterly image of the Earth's surface structures, especially water areas. Instead of reflecting the sky, the surface of the installation, reminiscent of a puddle, reflects the Earth's surface. A painterly satellite image slowly moves across the screen. A possible soundscape is also being planned for the work.
Around 4,900 satellites currently orbit Earth. After dusk, if the sky is cloudless, you might spot about thirty "wandering lights" or satellites within an hour (Source: www.ursa.fi). Some satellites provide open image data online.
Behind the thought process of the work titled Satellite (working title) is a piece called A Scene (2021), where we gave voice to the rhythms of marine signal lights. Satellite sets the observer, just like A Scene, between different distances and non-human entities, and aims to turn the observer's horizontal observation of the landscape vertical.
At the beginning of July was our tenth exhibition opening in the USA, this time in Iowa. Grin Cupola is a brand-new and unhurried art gallery in Grinnell. The group exhibition Hatched of Hope, curated by Joe Tuggle Lacina, includes five works by Mark Niskanen & Jani-Matti Salo, four of which were made in collaboration with cultural anthropologist Inkeri Aula. Other artists in the exhibition include Paula Elliott, Matthew Gamber, Liz Koerner, and Astrid Li.
The exhibition title embodies the notion that hope serves as a powerful instrument to transcend established patterns and facilitate transformative endeavors amidst a world characterized by constant change. Hope, in this context, extends beyond mere optimism or positivity, encompassing a profound acknowledgment of reality and a proactive commitment to address it.
The creative action of making is an inherently courageous and hopeful endeavor. The works presented by these five artists offer a rich tapestry of perspectives exploring the potential of hope as a metaphorical hatchet. Symbolically, hope functions as a tool that effectively severs ties to the stagnation of the past, forging new pathways toward progress and renewal. Across various artistic mediums, ranging from photography to sculpture, each artist presents a distinct vision of how to nurture hope within a world often fraught with uncertainty and overwhelming challenges.
Read more about the exhibition here: www.grincupola.com/hope
Ghost Light (2020), made in collaboration with cultural anthropologist Inkeri Aula, was showcased at the Pebbles Underground Film and Video Art Festival in Toronto, Canada, in June. Ghost Light will be presented at video art festivals in Europe this coming fall (TBA) and will also be part of the program at Joensuun kirjallisuustapahtuma (Joensuu Literary Event) on September 16, 2023. The theme of Joensuun kirjallisuustapahtuma is light. Read more at www.joensuunkirjallisuustapahtuma.fi/ohjelma/ (in Finnish).
In Ghost Light, the observations of the interconnectedness of species are shared through the undulating light on the amphitheatre stage. The text of the installation has been gathered from the archives of the sensobiographic walking interviews conducted by the multinational five-year research project, SENSOTRA (Sensory Transformations and Transgenerational Environmental Relationships in Europe 1950-2020).
Helsingin Sanomat conducted a survey of public sound installations in the metropolitan area. Timo-Erkki Heino interviewed us about the public sound installation A Scene II. You can read the entire article at: https://www.hs.fi/kulttuuri/art-2000009669066.html
“In the West, the sense of sight prevails. What happens when you change the order of the senses and make the sound the most important?” Salo asks. “Even though sound is the main material in many of our works, we still don’t want to talk about sound art, but more about creating situations,” says Mark Niskanen, who lives in New York, via remote connection. “Depending on the weather, the season, and other events in the environment, this is always a different work.”
Public maintenance of a sound artwork is significantly more demanding than, for example, a bronze statue. Outdoor audio equipment, power sources, and other technology must be monitored and serviced regularly. “Care is important already in the planning phase,” says Mark Niskanen. “How can a work be made sustainable? Taking care of the technique of the work is taking care of the experiencer of the work.”
A Scene II was included in the Helsinki Biennial 2021 and it is part of the HAM Helsinki Art Museum’s collection.
We are currently preparing a temporary public artwork for Porin Juhlaviikot (Pori Festival Week) program in collaboration with Inkeri Aula. The event will be held from September 22 to October 15, throughout the center of Pori, Finland. More about this upcoming work in our next newsletter. Porin Juhlaviikot is organized by NYTE ry. Forum Box Gallery is also involved in organizing the exhibition.
Follow the progress of the artwork on our Instagram channel @niskanensalo and the Porin Juhlaviikot on NYTE's Instagram @porinjuhlaviikot2023 and @galleria3hk.
19.12.2022
Our installation Ghost Light (2020), a collaboration with cultural anthropologist Inkeri Aula, was presented at Teater Viirus Amphitheatre on an August evening. Placed in the middle of the outdoor amphitheatre stage, Ghost Light shared stories of interconnectedness of species and led visitors to observe the metaphorical ghosts of our environment. The audience, consisting of passersby, residents of different ages in the Jätkäsaari area, artists, researchers, and friends of art and theatre, positively surprised us with their feedback. Therefore we decided to repeat the installation in November (and of course keep the visitors warm with servings of tea). A total of 220 visitors experienced the work on two different evenings. Thank you to all participants for engaging and thought-provoking discussions at the work and to Teater Viirus for the partnership.
The repetition of contextually detached sentences with a different voice in a new environment can produce a strange sense of weirdness. Verbal expression offers ways to evoke affective associations with non-human actors in the environment, presence, and one’s own relationship to different places. (...) In realized works, authorship seems to disperse.
The freshly-published book by Taina Kinnunen and Juhana Venäläinen ‘Kulttuurintutkimus tietämisen tapana’ (Cultural research as a way of knowing) features Inkeri Aula's article 'Keskinäisen vaikuttumisen tiede ja taide ympäristökriisien keskellä’ (Art and science of interaffectivity amidst environmental crisis), which explores sensory ethnographic and artistic approaches that blur the boundaries between the subject and the environment. Our collaborative interdisciplinary works Being There (2019), Ghost Light (2020), The Rains Are Different Now (2020), Murmurations (2020), and Garden of Becomings (2021-) are documented and viewed through a theoretical lens in the article (in Finnish).
You may now order the book both in physical and digital form via the Vastapaino bookstore.
In A Scene II, temporalities are closely tied to a place, and neither can be examined without the other. In discussions about art in public spaces, various temporalities are often outlined in relation to the life cycle of the work, the time of display, the time spent by the audience with the work, and the work’s lasting presence in collective memory. Non-human agency diversifies the range of temporalities and brings a perspective that extends beyond humans.2
In the latest issue of Tahiti - Art History as Knowledge (3/2022), you can read the beautiful text ‘Solmuissa, suhteissa, kerrostumissa’ (In knots, relations, layers) by curator Kristiina Ljokkoi. In the article, Kristiina discusses the works curated for the Helsinki Biennial 2021, which are in various ways committed to the questions proposed by the place and to the non-human agency of the place. Our work A Scene II is also included in the article. The whole Tahiti issue is great, so if you read in Finnish, take a look!
Our sound installation A Scene II, based on the rhythms of sea mark lights, has attracted almost 2000 visitors from 46 different countries in Kaivopuisto since March. The work is part of the collections of HAM Helsinki Art Museum and can be experienced every day an hour after sunset until sunrise at www.ascene.fi.
This is a good time of the year to experience A Scene II, as it’s on view for almost 17 hours at a time, from around 4 pm each day until sunrise the following morning. Vice versa, on bright summer nights, A Scene II can only be experienced for a few hours.
This autumn, we have been working on new ideas for installations and (among many things) turning our attention towards satellite networks surrounding the Earth. We have also been considering future works at a structural level–how could a large-scale media work be as lightweight as possible to move, install, and maintain in various locations globally?
Overall, the year 2022 has been a period of introspection, reading, researching, learning, and creatively exploring on a “slow flame” instead of frantically jumping from one project to another. This has been a great change of tempo for us, something we haven’t had as a duo since we started actively working together.
Season’s greetings to all! Wherever you are, we hope you have had a wonderful year, and we wish you a happy, healthy, and safe New Year 2023!
15.8.2022
Ghost Light (2020), a collaboration with cultural anthropologist Inkeri Aula, debuts as a live installation at the amphitheatre of Teater Viirus. The work will be shown on Wednesday August 24th between 18:00 to 22:00. The amphitheatre and the surrounding area offer a special environment for the metaphorical ghosts in the in-between of public space and theatre. The length of the work is 6 minutes, which loops until the sunset.
In Ghost Light, the observations of the interconnectedness of species are shared through the undulating light on the amphitheatre stage. The text of the installation has been gathered from the archives of the sensobiographic walking interviews conducted by the multinational five-year research project, SENSOTRA (Sensory Transformations and Transgenerational Environmental Relationships in Europe 1950-2020).
Voice actor: Noora Dadu
Two of the three working group members, Inkeri Aula and Jani-Matti Salo, will be present to greet the visitors.
The language of the artwork is English, but Teater Viirus will have translations available in Swedish and Finnish.
The admission to the amphitheatre is free. You are warmly welcome!
Ghost Light page on Teater Viirus website
Ghost Light event on Facebook
The original Ghost Light video is on view at Gallery Forum Box September 1-11, 2022.
Forum Box Market is a group exhibition showcasing the works of many of the artist members of Forum Box.
Ghost Light video was filmed at the Small Stage of the Finnish National Theatre in May of 2020, when the theatre had just closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The video has been on view in various screenings and group shows: The Folklore Fellows’ Summer School, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland (2021), Uncommon Senses III, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada (2021), Empiria ja tietäminen kulttuurintutkimuksessa seminar, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland (2020), Split Video Art Festival, Sveučilišna galerija Vasko Lipovac, Split, Croatia (2020), Online Program, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, USA (2020), Urban-Related Sensoria, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland (2020).
We hope to see you at the opening of the Forum Box Market exhibition on Thursday August 31, 17:00-19:00.
Mark and Jani-Matti are both members of Forum Box. In addition, Jani-Matti is a Forum Box deputy board member.
Forum Box Market event on Facebook
Lectures and symposiums
The SeaHer project by Åbo Akedemi is organizing an Environmental change, agency and knowledge of the sea symposium in Turku from 17 to 18 of August, 2022. Our collaborator Inkeri Aula’s presentation “We used to think that everything that goes to the sea just disappears” – sensorial experiences of river environments in change will provide a peek into the behind-the-scenes of the sensobiographic walking method as well as our collaborative practice.
Jani-Matti Salo will also join the event by presenting on our field work around Kokemäki river and the processes behind the works The Rains Are Dirrefent Now (2020), Murmurations (New York, 2020), and online publication Garden of Becomings (2022).
Read more bout the SeaHer project
Jani-Matti Salo will present at the VES seminar (Interactivity in Performance Design, Vuorovaikutteisuus esityssuunnittelussa in Finnish, shortened as VES) on September 3, 2022.
In his speech Uudelleen suuntauksia (Reorientations), Jani-Matti Salo examines, through case studies, how ethical, aesthetic, and technological choices are interconnected, leading to challenges in performance and media art in the era of ecological crisis. How do we translate these challenges in a way that is lighthearted, sustainable, and brings new meanings? The presentation is part of Jani-Matti’s three-year Uudelleen suuntauksia projects supported by Kone Foundation.
Jani-Matti will touch on working processes behind Ghost Light, Murmurations, A Scene II and Garden of Becomings.
The VES seminar will later be on view on the YouTube channel of the University of the Arts.
A Scene II, our sound installation based on the rhythms of sea mark lights, has garnered lots of positive feedback and attracted visitors throughout the year. The work, which is part of the Helsinki Art Museum HAM collection, was featured in Patsastelua radio show. You may listen to the series in Finnish on Yle Areena.
The artistic director of Teater Viirus, Jussi Sorjanen, selected our sound installation A Scene II as part of the Wondrous Living program at Hotel AX.
Helsinki Art Museum HAM published a new art guide over the summer. A Scene II is mentioned as part of “By The Water” tour, alongside twelve other works on view between Meilahti and Toukola. The public art guide is available at the Tennispalatsi HAM Shop.
Our works Being There, Ghost Light, The Rains are Different Now, Murmurations, and Garden of Becomings are also going to be featured in a new book by Juhana Venäläinen and Taina Kinnunen Kulttuurintutkimus tietämisen tapana (Cultural Research as a Way of Knowing), which will be published on Oct 31, 2022. More information in Finnish here
What’s next
Niskanen & Salo duo turned 7 years old on August 14, 2022! The last years have been full of exciting projects, for which we are extremely grateful and happy. Many thanks to all of our collaborators and supporters throughout the years!
This year, we are intentionally operating on a “low flame” in order to allow for serendipity and new explorations after seven hectic years of non-stop work. In September, Niskanen & Salo will start conducting monthly workshops, in which we focus on ideating new collections of works and themes.
Thank you very much for reading. Never hesitate to get in touch, and most importantly, have a wonderful rest of your summer!
7.3.2022
A Scene II, our site-specific sound installation, previously on view at Helsinki Biennial, is now part of the HAM Helsinki Art Museum collection.
A Scene II is a public sound installation based on the rhythms of sea mark lights in Helsinki harbor. The work can be experienced on the observation deck of the Kaivopuisto observatory via your mobile phone and headphones.
On the hilltop, the solar-powered sea mark lights are momentarily synchronized with the musical rhythms; they meet for a fleeting moment, and then the connection vanishes, over and over. A Scene II follows the planetary movements, beginning an hour after dusk and running until sunrise. The changing weather conditions also affect the experience and make it unique for every visit. On light summer nights, the work can be viewed for only a few hours; in the winter, it can be experienced from the early afternoon.
You can find the work at www.ascene.fi
For centuries, humans have been navigating by the stars towards new and unknown destinies. At sea, lighthouses have marked a safe route to other humans. Today, satellites direct ships. What will the sea view off Helsinki eventually be like in the future? What autonomous technologies will we leave blinking in the environment, haunting future generations? With A Scene II, we hope to provide a gentle pause in which to reflect on various layers and cycles in time.
A Scene II is also linked to our work For the Passerby (2019), a public sculpture inspired by Inogon leading lights – navigation technology that uses moare interference patterns to control seafaring. The work is located at Baana (former Helsinki harbour railway).
A Scene II press release:
www.hamhelsinki.fi/2022/03/03/kustaa-saksilta-lotta-mattilalta-seka-mark-niskaselta-ja-jani-matti-salolta-uudet-teokset-hamin-julkisen-taiteen-kokoelmaan
A video about installation A Scene, which was on view at Helsinki Biennial:
Our long-term collaborator, cultural anthropologist Inkeri Aula, will present our collaborative project Garden of Becomings at the POLIMA project research day in Turku on March 10, 2022.
POLIMA is “an ethnographic research project that addresses the timely question of political alienation and the dissipation of political imagination, as well as the need for fundamental social change.” POLIMA invites researchers, activists, and artists to share their work and discuss alternative social orders and opportunities for political change. Read more: www.polima.fi
Garden of Becomings is both a multimedia publication and a co-working platform moving in the borderline of art and social research. This open-access publication in the form of a virtual 360 environment opens up and shares the accomplished work and the background elaborations of our three-member art/research collective. The site is taken care of like a living garden, where our cultivation can produce serendipity, insights not originally searched for, in the wild growth and the appearing weedy landscapes.
Garden of Becomings is a living organism–always a work-in-progress, never finished, and never polished. Check out the project here: www.gardenofbecomings.com
27.1.2022
VR Studio
You are invited to a remote, VR studio visit: www.niskanensalo.com/vr-studio
Our VR studio consists of our latest works, captured through 360° photos and binaural audio recordings. You may view the documentation through a browser, cell phone, or VR glasses. Try the full screen mode by clicking on the top right corner of the 360° images. If you are using VR glasses, activate full screen mode by clicking on the VR glasses symbol, also on the top right corner.
Our VR studio started in 2020, when we decided to take advantage of technologies that would significantly reduce, if not eliminate, air travel for projects and exhibitions. Our use of 360° cameras, binaural microphones, and VR glasses as working tools for collaboration proved especially helpful, allowing us to communicate and experience the multisensorial nature of various sites and spaces without physical presence. We developed this method of work before COVID-19 started, but the pandemic encouraged us to explore these tools further.
All our exhibitions since early 2020 were designed and worked on via virtual environments, remotely. The Rains Are Different Now (2020) at the Poriginal Gallery of the Pori Art Museum, Murmurations (2020) at Brooklyn Bridge Park and Clare at Forum Box (2021) in Helsinki. In addition to acting as a platform for designing exhibitions, these 360° images and binaural audio also served as comprehensive documentation of the works, which we decided to turn into a virtual showroom.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you’re interested in learning more about our working methods and processes.
A special thank you to Promotional Arts Centre Finland for supporting our efforts in researching these virtual tools.
Garden of Becomings – ghosts of the environment, weedy landscapes and sensory walks on the frontiers of art and social research by Inkeri Aula, Mark Niskanen & Jani-Matti Salo
Artworks and research publications usually display only a fraction of the working process. Just over a year ago, in collaboration with cultural anthropologist Inkeri Aula, we began to consider a joint publishing project related to the themes of our interdisciplinary research/artworks. The idea for a rhizomatic online publication that would serve as our common desktop and be taken care of like a living garden was born.
The first version of Garden of Becomings was presented in early May 2021 at the Concordia University ‘Uncommon Senses’ Conference in Canada. We continued to reshape our garden last fall and the latest version of the Garden of Becoming was presented in the Cultural Research Days in early December.
The garden makes our collaborative practices available to other artists and researchers without the usual delay of the publishing process. In the midst of changing art and research projects, the virtual environment allows us to ponder sprouting ideas while displaying connections to the concepts, people, materials, and places that inspire us.
You’re welcome to explore and follow our unfinished and ever-evolving publishing project at: www.gardenofbecomings.com