Conversations in Light and Dark

Terry Winters, Declan Long, Alex Olson, Yuki Okumura, AGF aka Antye Greie-Ripatti, Kukka Paavilainen, Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Daniel Werkmäster, Aino Lintunen​

Conversations in Light and Dark is a two-day event at the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki, in the dark winter. It revolves around a discussion of painting, and how artists who use painting think about the world. It is concerned with time, collecting—the artist as collector, the studio as archive and the things painters are interested in, what painters are thinking about and what forms an artist, early experiences, enthusiasms, connections to other artists, sometimes from another age or geographical location and of course painting and light. It aims to create an environment where artists and other practitioners talk like they do amongst each other, so there will be coffee and some open-ended discussion, which will form around presentations by our speakers.

Curated by Fergus Feehily

The exhibition which forms a background to these conversations, Constellations, arose in many ways out of a course at the academy, called Far from the Tree. The course had several iterations and directions, but common was an immersive week involving a great deal of discussion, reading, looking, listening, screenings, conversation and tea drinking. These discussions covered ideas around getting lost, putting things together, and collecting things like records, books or paper planes as Harry Smith did, with the intention to create a space to inhabit and to allow thought and feeling to move outwards in new directions, both during the course and beyond it. The exhibition seeks in a modest way to do the same. The show features a number of archives, collections or ideas about painting assembled by individual artists. Students at the academy have also curated an exhibition within the exhibition, called Night Table, which is a response to the course and the building of this project. We are deeply indebted to all the artists, contributors and collectors who have responded to the project so generously.

Anonymous, Andreas Behn-Eschenburg, Ann-Sofie Claesson, Matt Connors/Pre-Echo Press, Annie-May Demozay, Koen Delaere and Bas van den Hurk, Erno Enkenberg, Far from the Tree, Lasse Juuti, Hannele Kumpulainen, Emelie Luostarinen, Mauno Markkula, Inga Meldere, Brendan Moran, Petri Ala-Maunus, Night Table, nynnyt, Peter Ojstersek, Yuki Okumura, Alex Olson, Nils Titus Östbrant and Ignat Burdo, Vesa-Pekka Rannikko, Sebastian Reis, Astrid Strömberg, Päivi Takala, Inari Sami garment, Harry Smith’s Folk Anthology, Tuukka Tammisaari.

Curated by Fergus Feehily

October 25–November 12, 2017
Exhibition Laboratory
Merimiehenkatu 36 C, inner yard
00150 Helsinki

November 3–19, 2017
Project Room
Exhibition Laboratory Project Room
Lönnrotinkatu 35