Photo Matterlurgy

At the Edges of Vision

27.1.2022

In this online talk Matterlurgy discuss their ongoing collaboration with curator Taru Elfving on the island of Seili and present their recent works that investigate the critical ecologies of environmental change. Matterlurgy approach organisms in their practice as sensors and sensitives, as indicators of change, but also as agential subjects and subjectivities. Elfving has been researching the spectres of ecological transformations in Turku Archipelago for over a decade now in dialogue with artists and scientists.

Together they ask: How to picture the embodied inter- and intradependencies of human life with other beings and the planetary forces that are present in every breath taken? How can sense of care be nurtured toward something that seems to escape the reach of human senses or the bounds of disciplinary knowledge?

At the Edges of Vision is part of the series of lectures Expanding Horizons of Art. New Artistic Expertise, organized by Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Turku UAS’ Arts Academy and Turku Museum Centre. More information on the lecture series here.

Matterlurgy is a collaborative practice between London based artists Helena Hunter and Mark Peter Wright. Information on their work here.

Matterlurgy work with Elfving as part of the project Spectres in Change by CAA at the Archipelago Research Institute, supported by Kone Foundation. Read more about their ongoing work in Seili here.

Photo Maija Huttunen / Metsähallitus. Dalskär 2013.

Ecology of Change: Fishnest

24.11.2021

Ten years ago the sculpture Fishnest was installed on the sea bed in the Archipelago Sea Nature Reserve. Today the work is home to a diverse underwater community.

In collaboration with Turku Art Academy, CAA has invited the artist Armi Nurminen and marine biologist Heidi Arponen to share their insights on the art work, which like an artifical reef provides shelter to a multitude of different species in the changing brackish water ecosystem.

The lecture is part of a series of events Ecology of Change that revisits the exhibition Contemporary Art Archipelago, realised as part of Turku 2011 European Capital of Culture programme a decade ago. The series is supported by the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland.

The lecture and discussion is in Finnish and can be followed online. More information here.

 

Field Cow-wheat (Melampyrum arvense). Photo Taru Elfving.

Spectres in Change: Art and Science Research of the Archipelago Sea

26.9.2019
Turku

CAA was invited to lecture on the ongoing curatorial and artistic work on the island of Seili in a series co-organised by the Art History Department of Turku University and the Fine Art Academy of the Turku University of Applied Sciences. Artist Kalle Hamm joined Taru Elfving to share thoughts and preview work-in-progress of his research into the migrations of plants in the Turku Archipelago.

The poster plant of the talk was peltomaitikka / field cow-wheat (Melampyrum arvense), an endangered “weed”, which thrives on the island of Seili these days thanks to the conservation of the naturalcultural ecosystems of the archipelago meadows.

Read more about Kalle Hamm:
Kalle Hamm and Saara Ekström in Seili
Spectres of Landings II

Photo Taru Elfving.

Contemporary Art Archipelago: Ecology of/in Practices

7.5.2019
Dublin

Taru Elfving was invited to present the work of CAA in the lecture series Archipelagic Thinking organised by GradCam, TU Dublin School of Creative Arts, in Spring 2019.