Elina Strandberg
Esat (“The Esas”)
Galleria Huuto Uudenmaankatu
3.10.–14.10.2007
Esa and esailla are contemporary Finnish slang words. They refer to things that are confusing, or strange and undefined in a positive way.
I live in a household with teenagers. Their mutual communication is filled with slang words, often innovative and open-minded. I’m following a time in their lives in which life itself includes lots of novelty – it’s an era of free patterns and personal themes.
The installation Voodoo Fruit or Onnea tuottavat esat (’good-luck esas’) is about what I noticed to have learned working with this ”youth material”. The installation is a combination of English nonsense verse and the cheerful character gallery in Brazilian graffiti.
Vaelluspassi (’ramble passport’) portrays the changing light during a fall and a winter of walks. My daily route took me from the parking slot of a population area, where the asphalt and the city ended, to wastelands and teeny slices of forest. To urban Finns, these slices represent Forest or Nature. Small, monthly, layer-painted pictures portraying the light of the wasteland around the parking slot serve as passport stamps for these little rambles.
Contact info: elinastran at hotmail.com
