EXHIBITION DETAILS

The Procession of Spectres | Ville Kansanen

March 10 - April 29, 2017

Artist Talk: April 14, 6:00-7:00

Reception: April 14, 7:00-8:00

Exhibition Location
Gould Gallery

STATEMENT

Procession of Spectres engages with vast landscapes to examine the fragmentary nature of the human condition and the emergence of self. Open minimal spaces create a sense of perceptual infinity and an introspective focus brought to acute focus when subjects are placed into them. The vast natural scene does not care if we are in it, if we are swallowed, lost or found. It is an equalizing environment to study connections to all living things. There is a kind of comfort in the melancholy of loneliness when framed in surroundings that permit almost no life and certainly no noise.

I create visual confines — frames — as a stage to execute different concepts, allowing for performativity. The structure relies on spontaneous staging and physical objects that move in an invisible choreography with my body and are assembled into still images. Presence is important to me. My primary ethic is never to introduce elements that were not there when composing the frame.

My themes emerge from silence — isolation, melancholy, grief, relief, introspection, gratitude, loneliness, peacefulness, regret, surrender — and fear. Silence is traditionally considered a virtue in Finnish culture and particular Nordic stoicism. My goal is to maintain the purity of my unconscious and intuition until authentic gestures surface. The hope is to provoke raw honesty within and softly release it.