Author Archives: Johanna

About Johanna

artist and curator

Fed up, out of job and without grant

Last couple of days have not been very special. Most of my time has gone into dealing with the local officials of ministry of labour. As my artist grant finished by the end of 2006 and so did my job, I have had to get all kinds of papers to prove that my artist grant is really finished and that my job did end (and proof why it ended). It’s a part time job to be out of job!
So it’s all been a bit frustrating. And the waiting for grant decisions and project fundings is not that great either.
Well, ANTI –festival got one funding decision today that didn’t make me smile. From the city of Kuopio the festival got the same amount than last year and since some project funding has stopped, all in all it means cuttings in the budget. Great. And the saddest thing is that the officials in the cultural office of Kuopio are more than well aware of our situation and there has been a lot of writings in the local media that the future of ANTI –festival has to be secured. So once again, the funders did nothing to help the
festival.
The mood now is waiting; waiting for personal grant decisions (will I be able to go on with my artistic work as I have planned?) and waiting for ANTI –festival’s budget to get confirmed. Waiting and waiting, wondering if I’ll have some form of income this year and at the same time working on the plans and projects without knowing if they’ll be funded or not.
Well, this is normal for many artists I guess, but it sure is tiring.

Some good news with I don’t have anything to wear, though. The performance space in Kuopio is now confirmed and we will perform the piece four times in the Gallery Carree in March. Great. We were also very well presented in the spring programme of Zodiak in Helsinki (where we’ll perform in May) with this image.
KleTu1_pos

Photo by Pekka Mäkinen.
Let me know what you think.
Johanna

thinking about kitchens

I had a meeting with Esa from Gatto kitchen in the morning. I have a pretty clear idea about our new kitchen that we have outlined with the architect of the Blue House Satu Ratinen. But still there are a lot of possibilities in terms of colours and shades, materials, equipment and all kinds of details. I’ve had meetings with three kitchen companies and now it seems that the choice is going to be between Domus and Gatto. In both cases, the material is pretty comparable, but the colour is somewhat different. In Gatto’s case the cupboards and boxes would be quite dark but in a kind of grey shade and in Domus’s plan the boxes below the work top would be black ash and the top cupboards from zebrano. In both plans the cold line would be from Festivo and from Gatto the other kitchen electronics from Smeg. With Domus we haven’t really decided on the oven, dishwasher etc. But I guess I still could by the Smeg dishwasher, oven and the cooker from Gatto even if I wouldn’t buy the cupboards.
Well, lot’s to think about. And the real issue here is that I’m so aware of the vast possibilities. If I didn’t order all the interior design magazines I wouldn’t know so much about all kinds of possibilities and materials. So I can only blame the decade long addict of ordering Avotakka, Koti ja Keittiö, Plaza, Living etc., deko, Meidän talo…!
I must say that one important thing for me is also the fact that Domus is a Finnish company and Gatto’s stuff is ordered from Italy. And since we are building an eco house, I definitely prefer the local suppliers – although that principle can be overruled for the sake of good design…

We have had a very unusual winter with no snow and temperature staying on top of the 0. Today wasn’t cold but it snowed a lot. It feels like all the snow we have missed since November fell down today. The kids are excited, of course.

We haven’t had time to visit my partner’s mom for about 9 months, but now we decided that we are going to visit her for the weekend and rest from the house building. So I’m looking forward to having saunas, sitting by the fireplace and enjoying the joy of my daughter spending time with her grandma.
Johanna

Between making and managing art

Yesterday I attended a seminar which focused on the regional art centres (dance, film, photography, children’s culture), their meaning for the cities and regions and future possibilities. The participants came from all over the country and from various organisations and institutions i.e. the Arts Council of Finland, Ministry of Education, regional dance centres in Kuopio, Oulu, Kajaani, regional arts councils and cities like Kuopio, Oulu, Jyväskylä etc. etc. So there were individual artists, art managers and producers as well as politicians and heads of cultural departments present.
I only attended one day of the two day seminar, but I was deeply troubled by the fact that the regional art centres are run by arts managers and producers which form more or less permanent staff but their main purpose of producing art and cultural events, productions, and cultural services is fulfilled by the individual, freelance artists. So most of their funding goes to the organisation and only a very small amount actually goes into freelance artists who in short term projects or with single contracts create the content and fulfil the aims of the centres. So the centres themselves are nothing without the work, input, insight and knowledge of the artists, but the artists themselves get very little from their funding.
There’s nothing new about this and this is not the first time I’m disturbed about it. There are for example 400 000 € EU funded art projects from which 4 000 € actually goes to the artists. So do the projects and regional centres actually benefit more art managers than the art itself, let alone the artists?
And is this a too sensitive question to ask?

I myself juggle between making work as a freelance artist and producing work by other artists and running a festival. There isn’t probably a day, I don’t think about giving up on one or the other. To get paid enough to compensate the time used is very difficult in both fields (at least in these geographical levels I live in) and my strategy has been to partially support myself with managing art because to work as a freelance artist is so insecure and there’s no guarantee of the future – you might know the next month, six months or even a year, but that’s furthest sense of security that I have ever reached. As a way of life, I must say, it’s very straining, demanding and exhausting. And as I’m getting older, I’m slowly beginning to lose hope that things will ever get better. I only get more exhausted and more cynical and my body deteriorates slowly, but surely.

That’s is not completely true though. The work with Jaana has been a real joy, for example. And there are a few other things I’m very excited about at the moment.

So it’s a paradox.
Hmm. Would life be too simple without it?

Let me know if you have any thoughts.
Johanna

Working

Artistic work can be really tiring and usually is for me. We have been working 5-6 hours a day with Jaana, and although we don’t really do anything physically outrageously demanding, I’m pretty nackered at the end of the day. We have been doing short asana practices at the beginning of each rehearsal to focus on the body, to connect with the actual state, to tune in and to get the energy flowing in the body. The practice is really useful as it reveals so well the physical, emotional and spiritual state you are in, even if your mind doesn’t necessarily want to acknowledge or accept it. I’ve had severe sciatic nerve pain in my pelvis area and right leg and my hamstrings have been a bit sore. So my practice has been very light and short. But it feels good to stick to it.
We’ve also talked a lot. About the body, female body, femininity, appearance, gender, gender trouble and Judith Butler (whose sister is a dancer, by the way), sexuality, normativity, emotionality, acceptable behaviour, about screaming and shouting, female anger, family, being a mother, a parent and a partner, and how the whole culture around dance has traumatised us and our relationships to our bodies for life.
Each nuance might not be visible in the upcoming work, but they sure are present in our bodies and discourses. Jaana talked today about how the body emits and radiates information that one can’t control which I thought was very beautiful and interesting.
We have been working on these scenes in which we dress, undress, dress, undress, dress, undress for ages. There’s stuff I feel is kind of self-humiliating but at the same time important to show and to do. We also want to demonstrate how clothes and overall appearance changes the way you look at someone, your gaze, and the direction of your sexual desire which is related to power. And what is culturally un/acceptable. It’s really interesting and so much fun!
We have been desperate about finding a performance space. Today we went to Nina to see if their space could work for the performance but it didn’t feel right. Jaana found a very beautiful top (245 €) by Anne Linnomaa, though (she did’t buy it). Then we walked to this new gallery Carree on Kauppakatu and it instantly felt like it could be our space. The owner Kirsti Carlenius was very nice and we also met her son Sampo, and it turned out we shared quite a few connections and networks. They had an exhibition on show by Kari Södö, who has composed the music to my early solo piece Enchanting Horizon (1999) and it turned out, that Kirsti is also from Hailuoto, the island where my parents live and where I grew up between 1980 – 1989. So we both know for example artist Anni Rapinoja whose daughter was my very best friend.
So let’s see what exhibition they’ll have on in March and hope we could fit in to the beautiful space!
We are going to work through the whole weekend. I’ll keep you posted.
Johanna

Salt & vinegar & coffee

Yesterday was a good day. I was pretty effective with arranging rehearsal schedules, performance schedules, updating budgets, bringing my performance trousers to be fixed and my boots to be streched, practicing the primary series and eating and cooking healthy food. I haven’t been going to yoga classes for a while. I’ve been practicing on my own and attending Anne’s workshops and retriets, and one workshop with Guruji. But now I felt that I really could do with some assistance in difficult asanas as well as enjoy peacefull environment. The practice with Mari’s assistance was really enjoyable. And despite all my back problems, I was able to do the full primary series, which was a suprise. I’m glad I start rehersals with Jaana tomorrow because she’s practicing ashtanga as well and we can do the practice together. And of course, I’m really into entering the process again!
Because we work with clothes and all kinds of issues related around female appearance, and because I’m into all kinds of lists, I thought I list here every piece of clothing I have purchased since our last rehearsal period in the beginning of Dec.
For myself:
– boots (on sale -20%)
– a top (on sale -50%)
– a dress (on sale -30%)
– a belt
– a yoga top (on sale, don’t remember how much)

For my daughter:
– a dress (on sale)
– a top (on sale)
– a pear of jeans (on sale)
– a track-suit (on sale)
– mittens

For my son:
– underwear, 2 pieces, long

For my partner:
– underwear, 2 pieces

Not that bad, eh?

My partner and my daughter picked me up from the yoga class yesterday wiht a pleasant surprise. I package from our beloved friends in London Andrew and Rebecca! They sent us these lovely Hot Mugs designed by Sebastian Conran which I desired when we visited them in November. But it was not just the Hot Mugs they sent – they were filled with small packs of Salt&Vinegar crisps which I love!!! And you can’t buy them in Finland, who knows why… Andrew and Rebecca are about the most kind, friendly, beautiful and talented artists and friends that I’m aware of. Even my daughter said: Can’t we go and visit them in London tomorrow! And she also admired the mugs and their colors. So today I’ve had my cup of coffee from my new Hot Mug and enjoyed the crisps (no-one else was allowed to touch them) with some red wine. Heaven!
I bought a bottle of Taideviini (art wine) today because the label on the bottle is designed by young visual artist Paavo Halonen, who is a very close friend of writer – performing artist Emma Puikkonen with whom I collaborated on Physical artistic deeds 4; Cosmetics and grean peas. I’ve met Paavo only ones or twice briefly, last summer I guess. He didn’t come to see our performance (I guess Emma asked him not to – because of some “lesbian tendencies” which was a joke between them) but was intensively flirted by an artistic director at the time…

Well, work today has been less spiritual. Updating ANTI -festival’s website for about 10 hours and sending out call for proposals nationally and internationally for the rest of the time. So sitting by the computer far longer than is recommended for anyone.
Time to say good night.
Johanna

Trying to arrange time to read Getting things done

It’s become a joke in my family lately. That I don’t get to read my Getting things done -book. But anytime I do, even a few pages or one chapter, it’s so inspiring and buzzingly exciting that I can’t sleep. My mind instantly starts to apply the techniques into my chaotic life and I vision this less stressful and more balanced life in which I don’t anymore run from one about to explode situation into another day after day. In which my work, shopping, budgets and deadlines are well planned and balanced i.e. I will have time to buy groceries and I will have energy to cook healthy food every day, I won’t skip any yoga practice, I will have time to be and relax with my children, I will have time and energy to do household stuff like cleaning or doing dishes before it all becomes such a chaos that it takes a whole day to do dishes, that I will have more time to think, be still and quiet for something new and unexpected to appear.
I’m back to normal schedule today although altering schedules is the normal one for me. But kids start their school, day care and hobbies again after a two week break. I didn’t get to sleep and relax as much I hoped, as there has been a lot of work to do at the Blue House (which we are building). But during the last week or so I have been able to sleep longer nights and I really have felt how tired I actually am. But I’m not yet back to the rhythm of waking up early as it feels so easy to stay up until 2 or 3 am.

On Saturday we travelled to Mikkeli to the New Year’s celebration party hosted by Pirjo Ala-kapee. The party was quite boring and the bus trip really long. But of course it was great to be invited and I had a few nice chats with one photographer from Mikkeli, one teacher whom I know from the Greens and then Arja and Ari. I drank some nice white wine from Valamo monastery, a bit too much I guess, as I wasn’t feeling very energetic yesterday.
I have a lot of things to organize concerning the new piece I’m working on. Jaana will come to Kuopio on Wednesday and I’m really looking forward to enter the process again and seeing how things have developed since we last worked. And I have to get my performance trousers shortened by Wed!
Johanna

Welcome and Happy New Year!

I want to warmly welcome You all to my blog. And from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank everyone who has helped me and been involved with setting this all up – you know who you are.

I hope this blog brings my artistic work and physical artistic deeds and observations closer to You and You closer to me. In the near future, I’ll be writing about the process of creating a new piece of work in collaboration with Jaana Klevering titled Mulla ei oo mitään päälle pantavaa (I don’t have anything to wear) which is about to premiere in Kuopio, Finland, in March. I’m also working on a solo work with a film and documentation crew and a group piece due to be premiered later in the autumn 2007. The solo work is kindly supported by the Arts Council of Finland and the group piece by the Regional Dance Center Kuopio but more production funding needs to raised. So there’s a lot of work coming up.

But before it all really goes on after the Christmas break, I’m travelling to Mikkeli on Saturday where the governor of the Province of Eastern Finland, Pirjo Ala-Kapee, is hosting a New Year’s celebration party. Time to have some fun although it feels like I don’t have anything to wear!

I’m looking forward to reading Your comments.

Johanna