arteles_catalogue_2014

LINTUKOTO & THE SWAN OF TUONELA
In Arteles, I continued my exploration into the modern role of
Clown. The Pierrot I resurrect is a melancholic and disillusioned
but ultimately hopeful being, a counterpoint to the harsh realities
of a modern world, of which it questions authenticity and return
to a truth via a spiritual journey in nature – a nature that seems at
once rosy, dark and embracing.
In Lintukoto (a warm, peaceful place in Finnish), a clown from an
affluent, modern city represented by Singapore -my home country
conflicted by disturbingly fast progress, and which was ranked the
most emotionless society- visits a misty Finnish forest where it
embarks on a journey of self-confrontation and transformation.
Combining performance and installation, whimsical and dark
interactions with real and constructed landscapes play out lyrically.
The images paint an ambiguous narrative of identity, calling upon
the modern and mystic, ending in cosmic metamorphosis. Collaged
with glossy Singapore postcards, decaying forest matter and
Pierrot’s scribblings, Lintukoto is a tactile, hand bound book that
becomes a sensorial palimpsest examining a modern spirituality.
The Swan of Tuonela is a lyrical allegory with playful sensibility
through performance and brushwork. Inspired by the Finnish
landscape and drawing upon the Finnish Kalevala myth of the birth
of the moon as well as Pierrot’s timeless role, the stop-motion
animation is set to Sibelius’s mystical classical piece of the same
title. A deletion of one’s creation as self-confrontation is a lesson
in responsibility and acceptance of loss in the natural cycle of life.”