Erkka Nissinen Material conditions of inner spaces
3 March – 12 April, Lower gallery
”Three men try to change physical circumstances through social action.”
Erkka Nissinen’s videos are performative stories told with film narrative humour, with an underlying question of humanity. In the work Material Conditions of Inner Spaces (completed in 2014, duration 00:15:29), he has combined an assortment of various digital formats and created a plot, which is full of bizarre action. He uses HD video high definition image combined with digital animation made in a fresh kind of DIY fashion, and the sound and langue influences come from musicals, slapstick comic, soap-operas, metaphysical philosophy, and nursery rhymes among others. His unpredictable humour forces the viewer to contemplate the inexistent line between tasteful and tasteless.
Material Conditions of Inner Spaces was previously shown at the Amos Anderson Art Museum in Helsinki, in 2014.
Erkka Nissinen
- born in Jyväskylä, 1975
- lives in Hong Kong and Helsinki, is currently in a residency in New York.
- studied in London at the University College Slade School of Fine Art and in Helsinki at the Academy of Fine Arts in the department of Time and Space Arts
- completed his Master’s Degree of Fine Arts in 2001
- his work is shown in museums and galleries internationally; the most recent significant exhibitions were at the Ellen de Bruijne Project Space and the Smart Projects Space in Amsterdam, at the Helsinki City Art Museum Kluuvi Gallery and the1646 exhibition space in Haag.
- the prestigious Illy Prize for his work Rigid Regime (2009) at the Rotterdam Art Fair 2011; the jury found the unexpected ending renewed the expression of video art
- the 15 000 euro AVEK Prize for media art in 2013; the jury chose Nissinen’s video work for it’s mastery in combining comical rhythm and narration of time in a sovereign way. In addition the jury found that the macabre quality, the exaggeration and the almost autistic repetition of the video work challenged the viewer.
- founded the creation studio Handkerchief Production with visual artist Amy Cheung in Hong Kong and New York, the function of which focuses on art, design, fashion and multimedia as well as marketing communications.
Media Art exhibition series at the Lower gallery
The Jyväskylä Art Museum has programmed an exhibition series of new media art to counterweight the museum’s historical collection exhibition Paris Can Wait (Ehtiihän sinne Pariisiin myöhemminkin) this spring. Erkka Nissinen is the second artist in this series, following two video pieces by Guido van der Werve. In April, the series continues with an exhibition (April 17th – May 24th) by Jyväskylä native Johanna Ketola who lives and works in both Jämsä and Berlin. Apart form their connection through digital technology, they are also peers with a strong connection to Central Finland, and a significant international network through the arts. This series was collaboratively programmed together with the Arts Promotion Centre’s media art representative of Central Finland (until 2014) Soile Ollikainen.