• heidikilpelainenfed_upbody15
  • heidikilpelainenfed_upsatumaa15
  • Satumaa / Land of Dreams
  • Satumaa / Land of Dreams
  • Satumaa / Land of Dreams
  • malfunction
  • Pahoinvointidisko / Sick disco
  • Pahoinvointidisko / Sick disco
  • Lauluvastaanotto / Tango therapy

Heidi Kilpeläinen

fed / up

Jätkä 2 21.8.-6.9.2015

Heidi Kilpeläinen
fed / up
Galleria Huuto – Jätkä 2
21.8. – 6.9.2015

Opening on the Nights of Art, Thursday 20.8. starting at 6 pm, welcome!
Program: Tango Therapy from 18.30 until 19, performance at 19.30,
Sick disco from 20.30 until 21

Events during the exhibition:
Sick disco on Fridays from 16 until 17
Tango Therapy on Tuesdays from 16.15 until 17

Heidi Kilpeläinen’s exhibition fed / up at Galleria Huuto comments extensively on the social ills and inequality of our time. Through her art Kilpeläinen wants to raise various social questions related to the market economy and neoliberal economic policy as well as our current culture of consumption. She also defends fiercely an individual’s freedom of speech and decision-making as well as the right to privacy. Her artworks react to the mainstream media’s sensational headlines and she uses, for example, debates seen on social media as her material.

Different local social issues meet global rafts of problems in Kilpeläinen’s critical and thought-provoking pieces. The anxiety caused by the economic situation, the Islamic terrorism shaking Europe, cooler relationships between major powers and genetically modified food spread by multinational companies are all topics that a visitor may encounter at the gallery. The artist’s intention, however, is not solely to point fingers but she also wants to offer an opportunity to vent bad feelings caused by different things and thus achieve a more positive state of mind.

Kilpeläinen’s exhibition will be built around the fed / up video installation (2015). The installation depicts mental nausea caused by frustration and it takes a rather physical form on the video and continues – perhaps endlessly – as a rhythmic choir of gagging. The black and white video shows the artist’s nauseous character duplicated again and again as a narrow and pale vertical image with the video ultimately turning into some kind of barcode. The sounds of the video images with different paces form a composition, an agonizing sound carpet that brings the nausea to the audience almost as a physical experience. The creation of the installation has been influenced, for example, by the artist’s frustration with the globalization of food production and the various problems it creates in relation to the origin and production conditions of food. Kilpeläinen’s background as a musician and singer is also nicely conveyed through the soundscape of the installation.

The multidisciplinary and skilled Kilpeläinen works with video, performance art, installations, sculpture, collages and prints – and of course her own voice through her music and various live performances. Kilpeläinen is known for installations that combine different elements and media and her exhibition at Galleria Huuto will also feature a wide range of her diverse works. The video collection included in the exhibition will introduce Kilpeläinen’s work as an artist in residence at Beaconsfield Contemporary Art in London during February and March 2015. The videos that document her performances carried out during the residency, interactive encounters with the audience and the artist’s work in the open studio show well the theatrical and processual nature of Kilpeläinen’s art, which includes introducing the different stages of her work as well as the various preliminary versions created during the process.

Interaction also plays an important role in Kilpeläinen’s art. As part of the Galleria Huuto exhibition, Kilpeläinen invites the audience to take part in various inclusive artworks, including the Sickdisco where Kilpeläinen will dance – alone or together with the audience – for an hour every Friday before the gallery closes its doors. The 2 x 2 meter square marked off on the gallery floor serves as a dance floor while the artist tries to get rid of nausea by dancing, conjuring up a good feeling with the help of movement. During Tango Therapy Kilpeläinen will personally meet one exhibition visitor at a time. The visitor will sit on a chair opposite the artist and she will either sing a traditional Finnish tango or a version of a familiar melody with new lyrics.

Heidi Kilpeläinen lives in London and graduated from the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 2004 with an MA in fine art. In addition to her career as a visual artist, she has designed clothes for her own label, HK119 Imaginature Collection, and made music actively under the stage name HK119 for the past ten years, releasing three albums through the London-based One Little Indian record label. Kilpeläinen has had solo exhibitions, for example, at the Percy Miller Gallery (2005) and Fortescue Avenue/Jonathan Viner Gallery (2006) in London as well as a series of performances during her residency at Beaconsfield Contemporary Art in London (2015).

In Finland her works have been previously displayed at the Aave Festival (2012), at the annual exhibition of the Union of Finnish Art Associations (SkjL) at the Kouvola Art Museum (2009), at MUU Gallery (2008), at the URB Festival (2006) and at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (First We Take Museums, 2005). This exhibition at Galleria Huuto will be the artist’s first solo exhibition in Finland.

Kati Kivinen, Curator and Art Historian (Ph.D.)

The exhibition has been supported by the Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture (AVEK) and Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

Contact: hk(at)hk119.co.uk

Further information:
http://heidikilpelainen.com/
http://hk119.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/hk119imaginaturecollection
http://www.indian.co.uk/site/artists/hk119
https://www.facebook.com/hk119
https://twitter.com/HKilpelainen119
instagram: heidi_kilpelainen119
https://www.pinterest.com/hk119

Tango therapy / Lauluvastaanotto

Tango therapy / Lauluvastaanotto