Fog is a cloud that touches the ground is a transdisciplinary event that brings together five curatorial projects presenting work in response to the shared theme of crisis. The projects delve into concepts of legacy, feminist narratives, informational skepticism, numbness and the state of being overwhelmed as a reaction to adversity. With work varying from textile and performing arts to sound and video installation among other media, the event invites you to reflect on your own relationship with divergent forms and representations of crises.
The title presents fog as the central metaphor of the event. It is a fog that suggests the co-existence of multiple dimensions and histories within the same space, the interconnectedness of our world and how actions can ripple through time and space. Each group takes on a different position in relation to this fog: some are centered within it, blinded by myopic vision, while others are looking for alternative perspectives and approaches; lingering between acceptance and reaction. The phenomenon of fog remains a representation of crisis, experienced as a lack of visibility and a single immersive entity, while being made up of multiple moving particles all working across time.
Fog is a reflection of the present, an acknowledgement of the past,
and a projection of the future.
The event is comprised of five projects; We Didn’t Start the Fire, Numb, Ancestral Futures, The Heiress and The United States of Finlandica and is co-curated by Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art (ViCCA) MA students participating in the Curating from Theory to Practice course.
We Didn't Start the Fire
The exhibition We Didn't Start the Fire tackles the topic of crisis through the lens of informational deluge and escapism. The space houses the multidisciplinary work of three artists; Juliana Irene Smith, Utu Samuli Karki and Zhao Xingrui. Their pieces work in unison to create an ambience that seeks to mirror the turbulence of our current reality in the form of informational saturation, escapism through digital immersion as well as personal and collective visual saturation.
Aiming to mentally and physically instigate an overwhelming feeling in the viewer, the exhibition centers on the senses, focusing primarily on sight and sound, as well as allowing the viewer to interact with the pieces and the space.
The title We Didn't Start the Fire makes a reference to Billy Joel’s song by the same name released in 1989. The singer lists culturally significant socio-political events from the 1940s to the 1980s commenting on how each consecutive generation is faced by a new set of challenges while past events are inherited and pile on to the future, whether disregarded or transformed they are still present.
We Didn't Start the Fire
It was always burning, since the worlds been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it
Juliana Smith
Juliana Irene Smith is a half-American, half-Iranian expat who works with generational trauma through material memory, text, and photography, as we can also see in the pieces that form part of the exhibition. Her artwork is extremely personal and deals with healing from sexual violence. The use of humor is meant to help her find strength within herself and for the viewer as a release from the seriousness of the topic. She holds a BFA in Photography from the Parsons School of Design in New York and a Master in Public Art from the University of Applied Arts and Sciences in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Zhao Xingrui
Zhao is a digital artist and visual communication designer. She is active in cross-disciplinary collaborations and has multiple identities dedicated to exploring the fields related to digital media art. Her works have output in both digital visuals and video and have been exhibited at Shanghai Biennale, Picnic Art Festival, Kutz Art Center, tx Huaihai, etc. In her own continuous creation, Zhao is committed to exploring new forms of visual expression and delivery in virtual space and new exhibition forms in the digital age.
Utu Samuli Kärki
Utu Kärki (they/them) is a second year MA student at New Media Design & Production in Aalto University. Working with both physical electronics as well as purely digital media, their work touches on internet culture, social media, and the effects of the modern internet on society.
