On-Site workshop is an intensive course held in Reposaari. Reposaari is a historical village on the Gulf of Bothnia, surrounded by forest. We stayed in a camp site near the village, with a café, a supermarket and residential houses. The learning activities were enriching and adventurous. We started with personal artistic practices and research in the morning, followed by individual work reports and mutual assessments. Participants gathered inspiration from the forest, the beach, the café and residential areas, and collected fragments such as sounds, images and objects as material for individual works. We learned from and inspired each other through processes of sharing and assessment. Teacher evaluations motivated us to further develop both our individual projects and the techniques comprising our artistic practices. Below is an example of a project created during the course.
Teachers: Pia Euro, Taina Rajanti, Lucy Davis, Max Ryynänen, Marko Karo
“Fill in the space/gap”
Ng Oi Ling
Installation and photography
Traditional Chinese characters are originally derived from pictograms, most of the characters can be explained with iconic presentations. Based on the character structure, I created a piece of work with installation and photography during the study trip in Reposaari.
“𨳒” is a traditional Chinese character means “to fuck/to scold”, it is used to express one’s anger in the Canton society. During the artistic practice, the Chinese character “𨳒” was being recreated in 3 dimensional way with two kinds of objects: Stones formed the “小” (meaning of “small”) and the bus stop formed the “門” (meaning of “gate”). The recreation of “𨳒” allowed me to scold and to express my stressful emotion in a poetic way. Accordingly, the work shows an innate psychological need that every human being may have experienced while coming across irritating moments. This relates to my belief that artistic creativity is a process that brings invisible feelings and meanings to become visible, and these works are the media to tell the story of this invisible realm.
Text and work by Ng Oi Ling
Photos by Worapoj Inlao
