Kaarina Ormio
Chinese Exercises
1.10.–12.10.2008
Galleria Huuto Uudenmaankatu
The theme of my exhibition is the meeting with the strange and the shallow adoption of it, the Chinese as the ‘strange’.
In the exhibition I have dresses, a video, calligraphy and Feng Shui.
Chinoiserie på finska I ja II (Chinoiserie in Finnish I and II)
The dresses are a high-handed blend of a western and a Chinese princess.
Chinoiserie på finska III (Chinoiserie in Finnish III)
In the child’s dress I have combined the fabric of the Naxi minority of China with fantasies of a Swedish folk dress. Actually it reminds a Korean dress.
Chinese Dots. Calligraphy Practise for a Beginner.
I started my studies in Chinese painting with calligraphy, like they usually do.
I started calligraphy with the dot, the smallest part used in the Chinese characters. Even how to draw a dot is exactly defined.
The work depicts really how impossible it is to suddenly deepen in parts of another culture, when you don’t have all that background unknown to you, that in this case the Chinese themselves have.
Uunisaari
On the video, Tero is playing a Chinese hulusi on the Helsinki island Uunisaari, on a rainy September day.
Feng shui
Feng Shui (‘wind and water’) is a thousands of years old practise developed in China. It is based on the idea of the energy circulating in the universe. It must be let go around, although not too fast. All the things and materials in the space surrounding us can either advance or slow down our intentions. By understanding the subtle movements of the energy, we can, with the help of Feng Shui, plan our surroundings so it becomes easier for us to achieve our goals.
I have loosely followed the Feng Shui line that takes notice of the points of the compass.
You enter the gallery from the south. The big red dress signifies the Sun and fire, passion, the social, pride and becoming taken into account.
The big window in south-east suits well communication, new ideas and creativity.
Everything new sprouts from east. The green colour, trees, wood, projects and activity belong here. Here I have placed The Chinese Dots, that remind me of birch trunks. (Also the material in the Chinese paper is wood, even if it is falsely called rice paper in the west.)
Water in the cups beside feeds the trees and purifies the atmosphere.
The mountain in north-east is now the cliff of Uunisaari, where the Finnish eremite plays a hulusi.
In north, water, night and winter operate. The mirror ball is like the moon, and also glass material suits north.
The metal in the bells is the element of north-west. Supporting others, wisdom and a feeling that you control your own life belong to the energy of north-west.
Of Huuto’s collector’s cards and of the small minority dressed dolls I made something like a home altar. The person on the cards could be like a guardian spirit. Please take a card with you if you wish.
The red sunset (the red yarns in the bells), autumn, family, harvest and satisfaction over the things that you have achieved in your life are connected to west.
Please feel free to ring the bells. The vibration clarifies the atmosphere. Also, it doesn’t matter if the dresses and the mirror ball are in motion.
I thank the Feng Shui specialist Lena Törmä from i design oy for her help in compiling the exhibition.
Kaarina Ormio
https://www.galleriahuuto.fi/kaarina/
