Anni Rapinoja, International Shoes, 2007, Red Worthleberry, Courtesy the artist.

Huutajat – The Screaming Men, The Screaming Men, 2003, Still image from video, 76 min., Directed by Mika Ronkainen, Courtesy the artist.

Markus Copper, Kursk (detail), 2004, Courtesy the artist.

Stiina Saaristo, The Celebration-Festen, 2006, Pencil on paper glued on primed aluminum, Courtesy the artist.

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
22-25 Jackson Avenue
Long Island City
718-784-2084
Arctic Hysteria:
New Art from Finland
June 1-September 15, 2008

Arctic Hysteria: New Art from Finland is an intergenerational and interdisciplinary exhibition featuring 16 Finnish artists who will introduce New York audiences to outlandish visions of aliens, utopias, animals, and psychedelia. Arctic Hysteria is on view in the First Floor Galleries, Café, and Boiler Room.

Built especially for the exhibition, the Futuro Lounge is conceived as an homage to Matti Suuronen’s 1960s design of the legendary Futuro House, and serves as a screening room for videos and documentaries. In the Corner Gallery, the severe and breathtaking installation by sculptor Markus Copper invokes the tragic sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk in 2000. An ice breaker, blinding snowscape, and a choir of twenty men together compose a documentary by Mika Ronkainen of the Screaming Men. In P.S.1’s mysterious Boiler Room, Veli Granö's films introduce eccentric individuals who are obsessed with outer space and the paranormal. Tea Mäkipää's 60-foot long photographic collage, World of Plenty, is an ambitious depiction of a utopian landscape. A newly composed sound piece by Sami Sänpäkkiläfi accompanies this installation. In Mäkipää’s latest video, the artist literally presents the world from a reindeer’s perspective, by attaching a camera to its antlers. Nature also plays a central role in Anni Rapinoja’s “couture pieces” where shoes, coats and hats are made from leaves and in Pekka Jylhä’s installations that feature stuffed hares.

For their U.S. debut, the Pink Twins present a room of psychedelic video and sound pieces derived from various digital sources. Stiina Saaristo’s black-and-white drawings combine overtly masculine and feminine body parts to challenge the genre of self-portraiture. Mika Taanila’s film on Erkki Kurenniemi, a pioneer in electronic music, juxtaposes Kurenniemi’s musical instrument DIMI-S and his swearing robot Master Chaynjis. Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen present a compilation of Complaints Choir performances, and will develop a new piece during a workshop on June 8. Jari Silomäki’s ongoing photographic project My Weather Diary stems from local circumstances but addresses universal themes that are common to us all. Also on view is a tragicomic video diary of the dancer Reijo Kela, and two videos by the internationally renowned artist Salla Tykka. Ilkka Halso's giant fantasy photographs that suggest the union of natural landscape and built environment, are presented in the Café and Lobby.

This exhibition was organized by P.S.1 Director Alanna Heiss, and FRAME Director Marketta Seppälä.

Pekka Jylha, Trembling and honoring, 2005, Stuffed hare, motor, milk, glass, tremble, 60 x 50 x 30, WAM / Turku City Art Collection, Photo by Jussi Tiainen.

Salla Tykkä, Lasso, 2000, 36 film/video, Dolby sr, 3:48 min., Courtesy the artist..

Tea Mäkipää, My Life as a Reindeer, 2008, Still image from video installation, 20 minutes, Courtesy the artist, Photo by Vesa Ranta.