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Indepth Arts News:
"Still: Eeva-Mari Haikala"
2007-08-25 until 2007-09-22
Spacex
Execter, ,
UK United Kingdom
Finnish artist Eeva-Mari Haikala returns to Spacex this summer after a
three month residency earlier this year. 'Still' is Haikala's first major
solo exhibition in the UK and premieres a 16mm film, a series of video
works and several large format photographs. Haikala's work focuses upon the notion of still life within moving image and continues to explore themes from her 'Tableaux Vivants' series, looking at the tradition of performance to camera.
In 'Attempts to be still', a new 16mm film the viewer is invited to gaze
upon the scene of a woman lying motionless on a bed, just breathing and
being still.
Unable to move around the scene, Haikala has restricted our
view from the fixed vantage point of the camera as if looking at a painting
or still image. Footage shot by an actor with cameras attached to his body
during the making of the work offers up the opportunity for the viewer to
glimpse the set from different angles in a three screen installation,
titled "Remote".
The tradition of still life painting is referenced in the large format
photographic works, titled "Still". Here, Haikala was influenced by Pierre
Bonnard's intimate and sumptuous bedroom scenes, capturing the atmosphere
in his paintings through the fabrication of her dimly lit but richly
coloured film set.
Chance becomes an integral part of her working process limiting herself to
predetermined time frames with performances lasting for three minutes, the
same length as the film stock and an equal three minute exposure for her
large format photographs. As in all her work, Haikala draws the viewers
attention to the dimension of time, whether arrested or in motion.
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