Arctic Hysteria on the streets of New York City

By Markku Saksa
     
      An exhibition entitled Arctic Hysteria: New Art from Finland, featuring 16 Finnish contemporary artists, opened at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens, New York City, on June 1st.
      The name of the exhibition dates from the novel series by Finnish author Marko Tapio.
      The exhibition is organized by P.S.1 in collaboration with the Artists' Association of Finland and FRAME, the Finnish Fund for Art Exchange.
      The co-curators of the exhibition are Marketta Seppälä, the Director of FRAME, and Alanna Heiss, the director of P.S.1 and a prominent art figure in New York, who both have organized numerous international exhibitions.
     
Arctic Hysteria will be on view from June 1st through September 15th.
      In conjunction with the exhibition, two major Finnish rock acts Jimi Tenor and Op:l Bastards will perform on August 23rd. Alana Heiss expects that the music festival will attract an audience of some 10,000 to the galleries.
     
The mere name of the exhibition promises some madness.
      Ice, snow, and sleet are described beautifully, or alternatively using warts-and-all shock realism.
      A choir of twenty men in black suits singing together in the snow headlines a documentary of The Screaming Men directed by Mika Ronkainen.
      In Teija Mäkipää's latest video, the artist literally presents a reindeer's-eye-view of the world, by attaching a camera to its antlers, while Veli Granö's films showcase eccentric individuals who are obsessed with outer space and the paranormal, and a guy who believes he is Vincent van Gogh.
      Antoine Guerrero, the French-born Director of Operations and Exhibitions at P.S.1, says that during his 15-year career the Arctic Hysteria show is the first exhibition which includes ”everything”.
      ”The Finns have brought with them architecture, drawing, painting, video art, music, song, and photography and whatever else. This is a real show”, he says enthusiastically.
      Sculptor Markus Copper is amused by an American comment at the opening: ”The exhibition is as crazy as the Finns”.
     
The comment might have referred to the severe and jaw-dropping installation by Copper, invoking the tragic sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk in 2000.
      Alanna Heiss, too, regards Copper’s work as an example of the unique quality of the Finnish artists.
      ”They are special, powerful, and interesting. They are well educated and well-informed, but they are also in close touch with nature and technology”, Heiss ponders.
     
Most works involve moving images, and artist Pekka Jylhä acknowledges that here in Finland video and photographs are present in the arts a great deal, since we tend to be skilled in the genres.
      Jylhä's offerings for the show include a work that blends sculture and and movement, in the shape of a stuffed hare holding a glass dish of milk - the motorised trembling effect causes the milk to move and the hare seems to be alive.
     
The name of the gallery - P.S.1 - dates from the old elementary school located in Queens in 1895. At that time the school was called Public School No.1. It was closed down in 1960.
      Established in 1971, P.S.1 was an independent gallery for nearly 30 years, before becoming an affiliate of MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art, in 2000.
     
The list of 16 Finnish artists taking part in the exhibition at P.S.1:
      Markus Copper, Veli Granö, Ilkka Halso, Male Voice Choir The Screaming Men, Pekka Jylhä, Tellervo Kalleinen & Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen (founders of the now-famous Complaints Choir - see below), Reijo Kela, Erkki Kurenniemi, Tea Mäkipää, Anni Rapinoja, Stiina Saaristo, Jari Silomäki, Sami Sänpäkkilä, Mika Taanila, and Salla Tykkä.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 3.6.2008
     
     
Note: Whilst some of the items on show in New York might seem strange, the name of the exhibition should not be confused with the medical condition known as "Arctic hysteria" (also known as "piblokto"), which affects some Inuit peoples in the far north. We Finns have a madness all our own.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish contemporary art headed for New York City (9.5.2008)

Links:
  PS1 at MOMA, New York
  Jimi Tenor
  Op:l Bastards (Wikipedia)
  FRAME Finnish Fund for Art Exchange press release - Arctic Hysteria: New Art from Finland
  Screaming Men Choir (Mieskuoro Huutajat, Oulu)
  Complaints Choirs Worldwide