Joen kanssa / Tillsammans med älven / With the River: 2
A border-crossing collective artistic work in many parts 2022–2023
Henri Hiltunen and me in Haparanda, May 2023. We are picking up thrash that was washed on the shores after the largest flood in the Torne river for decades.
In pt. 2: Joen kanssa / Tillsammans med älven / With the River I worked collaboratively by the Torne river and in Studio Jala in Haparanda, Sweden with the local artist Henri Hiltunen. I am a long-term artist guest at an atelier residency in Studio Jala, Haparanda where I am invited to work with the Jala Art and Handicrafts Association (Jala konst och hantverk).
Henri Hiltunen is an artist that uses the brush, the camera and the computer to create his art. The abstract lies near to his heart and his newly found artist alter ego Dyster Kuckoin paints in dark and vast strokes and scrapes. Henri has for example learned me to become inspired and to learn to paint aquarelles which is an on-going endeavour that brings a lot of joy but also frustration. Since a few hours get-to-gether over some wine, snacks and a basic aquarelle workshop, I have spent the previous year to learn experimental aquarelle painting amongst other analogue techniques/expressions. It is a material where I as an educated photographer embrace chance and I am letting go of total control and the need for “perfectionism” that is engrained in the quest for the “perfect photograph”. This learning also entangles into an experimental aquarelle painting workshop with salt and the water from the Torne river that I held for some children and young people. In our collaborative explorations with Henri we entangle different artistic techniques and concentrate on the materials and the materiality as well as a lot of dialogue and pondering, being-with. We also think together by and with the Torne river and make collaborative and individual artworks (digital and analogue) as well as performative photography and underwater video works.
Our collaborations, experiments and work-in-progress was presented in an exhibition in Studio Jala, Haparanda in June-July 2023.
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Our joint artistic work was supported by Tornedalsrådet (Tornionlaakson neuvosto / the Tornedalian Council).