Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the urbaani todellisuus category.
The Age of Meduzation (not only of Mediatization)
About 11-headed masked person and a bunny meet the mystery of the carnation, a digital painting by Ulla Karttunen, on display at the exhibition POP, DEATH & CRYWANKS in Kunsthalle Turku
The work deals with concealing, revealing, posing, and cutting necks; it is a contemporary version of the myth of Medusa. According to Nietzsche, every deep spirit needs a mask. But in advanced capitalism the spirit is a ghost that – despite the endless repetition of faces – rarely becomes visible. And not all questions related to the power of the gaze have been raised yet.
In the myth of Medusa, death and the gaze, the most fatal seducer and the most horrible monster, are intertwined. The snake-headed Medusa petrified to death anyone who looked at her. Contemporary world has succeeded to make this fable everyday reality: it has multiplied Medusa-like charmer, horror and petrifying to death in the endless productions of commodities and images, in media and social media. The compulsion of the gaze and petrification are repeated, and Medusa, gazing on herself, is making endless death under the spell of her own image.
On the other hand, this artwork’s character, about 11-headed masked person, is a figure celebrating her (or his or its) strength in her glow of light, floral costume and many identities. It is a character which has not been tamed by even the worst punishments. Those who have been silenced and locked into one dimension, the masked persons from all empires, will emerge from the shadows, when time and history will allow. This appearance does not use the traditional hero’s weapons, such as the sword of Perseus who cut Medusa’s neck, but the opposite, such as laughter and sensuality. – In a feminist interpretation, Medusa represents the power and irony of the silenced.
Muting is power politics and the wrong kind of silence. But there is another idea of silence and almost withdrawing beyond the picture. Our not only mediatized but medusatized age believes in the liturgies of economy religion, in trendy identities and their endless but empty exposures, in selling by the imaginary and hastening the petrification. The small bunny in the boudoir or the saints hiding in their cloaks may be looking in another direction: innocence, darkness, or retreat from the world into a medialess convent.
details of the work About 11-headed masked person and a bunny meet the mystery of the carnation
Medusaa, poppia ja kuolemaa
Turun Taidehallin POP, DEATH & CRYWANKS -näyttelyssä on esillä Ulla Karttusen teos Noin 11-päinen naamiohenkilö ja kani kohtaavat neilikan mysteerin.
Teos kertoo piiloutumisesta, näyttäytymisestä, kaulojen katkaisemisesta ja nykyajasta Medusan myytin näyttämönä. Nietzschen mukaan jokainen syvä henki tarvitsee naamion. Mutta henki on kehittyneessä kapitalismissa aave, joka loputtomasta kasvojen toistosta huolimatta harvoin esittäytyy. Eivätkä kaikki katseen valtaan liittyvät kysymykset vielä ole näkyvillä.
Medusan tarussa kuolema ja katse, fataalein lumooja ja hirvittävin hirviö, solmiutuvat yhteen. Käärmepäinen Medusa kivetti kuoliaaksi sen, joka häneen katsoi. Nykytodellisuus on onnistunut tekemään tarusta arkipäivää, monistamaan Medusan kaltaisen viettelijän, kammotuksen ja kuoliaaksi kivettäjän niin tavaratuotannon kuin median ja sosiaalisen median kuvaseuraannon loputtomuudessa. Katseen pakko ja kivettyminen toistuvat, itseensä katseen kääntänyt Medusa tekee oman kuvansa lumoamana loputonta kuolemaa.
Toisaalta teoksen noin 11-päinen naamiohenkilö on valohehkussaan, kukkaisasussaan ja monine olemuksineen voimaansa juhliva hahmo, jota pahinkaan kuritus ei ole taltuttanut. Vaiennetut ja yhtä ulottuvuutta kantamaan lukitut, kaikkien valtakuntien naamiohenkilöt, nousevat varjosta esiin, kunhan aika ja historia sen sallii. Tässä esiintulossa eivät ole käytössä perinteisen sankarin aseet, kuten Medusan kaulan katkaisseen Perseuksen miekka, vaan päinvastaiset, naurun ja aistimellisuuden kaltaiset. – Feministisesti tulkittuna Medusa edustaa vaiennettujen voimaa ja ironiaa.
Vaientaminen on valtapolitiikkaa ja vääränlaista mykkyyttä. Mutta on olemassa toinenkin ajatus hiljaisuudesta ja lähes kuvan tuolle puolen vetäytymisestä. Kun medusoitunut aikakausi vannoo taloususkonnon taattuihin tehokeinoihin – paljastamiseen, kuvitteellisella myymiseen ja kuoliaaksi kivettämisen kiihdyttämiseen – budoaariin eksynyt kani tai viittoihinsa kätkeytyneet pyhimykset etsivät ehkä toista suuntaa: viattomuutta, pimeyttä ja vetäytymistä.
- Turun Taiteilijaseuran 100-vuotisjuhlavuoden näyttelyn, eli sadannen vuosinäyttelyn, on kuratoinut runoilija Susinukke Kosola, joka valitsi mukaan 29 taiteilijaa. Kuraattorin mukaan “POP, DEATH AND CRYWANKS on 2020-luvun inhimillisyyden invokaatio. Pehmeät pastellit ja populaarikulttuurin hähmäiset hahmot, polygonien ja renderöityjen digimaailmojen välke yhdistyvät elämän suuriin ja muuttumattomilta vaikuttaviin kysymyksiin.” Näyttely on esillä Turun Taidehallin Iso Galleriassa 12.1.–25.2.2024.
Turun Taidehalli sijaitsee Brinkkalan talon vieressä Vanhalla Suurtorilla
Osa teoksesta Noin 11-päinen naamiohenkilö ja kani kohtaavat neilikan mysteerin © Ulla Karttunen, 2024, 200 x 94 cm, digitaalinen maalaus, pigmentti akryylille ja alumiinille, diasec
Joy and Riot
Helsinki Pride parade yesterday gathered around 100,000 participants. The theme for this year’s Pride Week, and international Pride Month, is Joy and Riot.
The Helsinki Artists’ Association’s summer exhibition Under the Rainbow / Sateenkaaren alla celebrates the same theme and the spirit of the Pride Month: joy for everyone’s right to their own identity, rebellion and riot so that human rights and diversity can be realized.
The exhibition Under the Rainbow, Helsinki Artists’ Association Art Lending, is open until August 31, 2023, Rikhardinkatu 3, 00130 Helsinki.
Enlightened Persons, Perhaps Saints, With Strawberry and Pistachio Ice Cream / Valaistuneita henkilöitä, kenties pyhimyksiä, mansikka- ja pistaasijäätelön kera, 2023, by Ulla Karttunen (digital painting, pigment on acrylic and aluminium / alumiinille kehystetty, akryylilasilla päällystetty digitaalinen maalaus/värivedos, diasec, 50 x 50 cm) on display at the exhibition Under the Rainbow (+here)
Death by breath: coronavirus, art and change
Death by breath. – Blind Spot Society IV, by Ulla Karttunen, 2012, pigment on acrylic and aluminium, diasec, 60x80cm.
”Everything feels new, unbelievable, overwhelming. At the same time, it feels as if we’ve walked into an old recurring dream.” – The previous quote is not about a surrealist work of art but about reality; Peter C. Baker writes in the Guardian about the coronavirus.
When I was looking for works for the coronavirus-themed exhibition Art in Time of Emergency (from March 26th to June 9th 2020 at Artsy), I noticed that many, perhaps too many of my works seem to be related to this time of the deadly virus.
Working with themes like death and love, or the meaning of existence, has long been out of date. Suffering, loss and death, as well as the feeling of the presence of a miracle, have long been too pathetic themes for contemporary art that wants to stay close to cool jokes.
The series Blindspot Society I-VI is from the year 2012, so 8 years before the world became a surreal scene of death and lockdowns. This series does not only illustrate the virus itself but can also be seen as a metaphorical interpretation of today’s atmosphere.
Coronavirus or magic crystal ball from eight years ago? – a detail of Blindspot Society III, 2012, by Ulla Karttunen
Many aspects of our viral times are there in the series Blindspot Society:
° invisible secret spreading of something we do not know thoroughly ° dying bodies ° isolation, quarantine, social distancing ° deserted empty places ° sense of anxiety ° masked faces ° reality turned strange ° horror film atmosphere ° fiction turned alive ° blind spots of society (social inequality, lacks in health care or elderly care etcetera) becoming visible ° old world order breaking down, new reality emerging
With the coronavirus, the unreal has become part of the true reality.
In the series Blindspot Society, historical palace views serve as a metaphor for the surrealism of today’s market-based society. The luxurious over-aestheticization of palaces is comparable to the endless stream of seductive products under advanced capitalism.
The almost global assumption that the world is a stream of pleasure and entertainment has now been replaced by the scenes of destruction, suffering, and death. What will change? Hopefully not only a forced temporary improvement on climate change and over-consumption but also the creation of a new order. The question of what is essential to existence must be raised again, both in art and in society.
What is this strange virus that is secretly spreading everywhere? – Blindspot Society III, by Ulla Karttunen, 2012, pigment on acrylic and aluminium, diasec, 60x80cm.
Waiting in the corner of the known world. Waiting to know what this unknown is. – Blindspot Society I, by Ulla Karttunen, 2012, pigment on acrylic and aluminium, diasec, 60x80cm.
Keep distance and protect yourself – Blindspot Society II, by Ulla Karttunen, 2012, pigment on acrylic and aluminium, diasec, 60x80cm.
All these beautiful shoes and nobody to make jealous of them – Blindspot Society V, by Ulla Karttunen, 2012, pigment on acrylic and aluminium, diasec, 60x80cm.
A scream in empty salons and offices. – Blindspot Society VI, by Ulla Karttunen, 2012, pigment on acrylic and aluminium, diasec, 60x80cm.
Art Below has started at Hyde Park Corner station
The Art Below Summer Show is on display at Hyde Park Corner tube station from 18th June 2018 for two weeks. On 26th June the exhibition opens also at Herrick Gallery. The theme is the ‘Digital Age’, given by the curator Ben Moore: the artists have been asked to ’to voice and document their current relationship and place in the digital age and to channel their feelings and emotions about this rapidly changing time that we are living through’.
The artist Ulla Karttunen’s work is an ironic interpretation of the idea of man, the idea of human being, in the digital age. The illusion of being connected and the rise of narcissism characterize the digital age.
What is the difference between a sheep and a human being? A sheep knows that it’s cool without obsessional repetition of its face in asocial media.
Everyday Poetics in Algiers
Not only white – as you would wait from the town called North Africa’s White Lady – but also black and white, and with all shades and colors.
Towards Immortal Perfection
Ulla Karttunen’s art work ”Towards immortal perfection” was included among this week’s ”Editors’ choices” section at Celeste Network.
The work is anti-advertisement which speaks about our social skin:
This half-rotten portrait is a religious relic of our age, where existential meaning and immortality are believed to be reached through repetition of images and perfecting appearance.
Skin is not only a personal, sensory and sensual thing. It is also connected to society, economics and politics. Contemporary market-based society is focused on productising sensory and experiential modes of being.
Your skin is a surplus value factor for economy. Many sectories of market are related to productisation of visual appearance, or more generally, to aestheticization of lifestyle. Different fields from advertising to media, from fashion to beauty industry, from entertainment to social media, participate in capitalizing obsession for aesthetic perfection.
In contemporary society, driven by the celebrity cult in media, and the compulsion to selfie in social media, the value of human being is counted from the repetition of images. In the visual age, especially women’s role is to become fetish-objects of market. The humankind has obtained, through neoliberal economy, a religious dream: immortality can be gained, through obedient consumers, immediately.
–
The work is a manually and digitally altered magazine advertisement. The original advertisement spoke about ”the future of more perfect skin”.
Kööpenhaminan tyylejä
Henning Larsenin suunnittelema, vuonna 2005 valmistunut oopperatalo Holmenilla
Christianian aitaa
Välkehtiviä vesiä ja kirjakahviloita. Oopperatalon megalomaanista arkkitehtuuria ja Christianian graffiteilla kuorrutettuja rötisköitä.
Katusoittajia luksusliikkeen edessä. Olisikohan tuo Suomessa edes mahdollista, että Louis Vuitton -liikkeen edustalla esiintyisi musisoijia, joiden väskyt tai muovikorit pyörän tarakalla eivät edusta ko. merkkiä ja joilta muutenkin puuttuvat viralliset luksus-sertifikaatit?
Vuittonin liikkeen sijainti määrittää varmaan kaupungissa kuin kaupungissa arvokeskustan keskipisteen eli neliöhintojen huipun. Mutta mitä nousikaan aivan Vuittonin vierellä, saman torin toisella sivustalla; monikerroksinen Hayn lippulaivamyymälä. Hay on yksi ’new nordic designin’ pääedustajista, nuoren raikkaan muotoilun esiinnostajia Muuton ja Normann Copenhagenin rinnalla. Hayn liikepaikka todistaa tuoreen suunnittelun nousevasta mahdista ja maata brändäävästä voimasta. Pelkkä Hayn paperikassikin pysäytti turisteja toisaalla Kööpenhaminassa kysymään, mistä liike löytyy.
Tanskalaiskodit vaikuttavat keskimäärin äärimmäisen disainatuilta, jo kävelykierros ainakin Holmenin kaupunginosassa pimeän aikaan todistaa lemmekkyydestä isoja tauluja ja design-valaisimia kohtaan. Sama näkyi Airbnb:n kotitarjonnasta, design rulaa jopa niin, että joka toisessa kodissa on samat pakolliset muotoilutuotteet.
Monikerroksinen Hay House kuuluu Köpiksen hip-putiikkeihin
erään kadonneen kirkon tapaus [[ neitsythuorakirkko ]] 