Absurd times

Now you can enjoy art wherever you are! Amos Rex presents video artworks from the Generation 2020 exhibition online.

Generation 2020 artworks are presented online in two selections: Seeking connection and Absurd times.

Major, worrying themes often have absurd features. Many Generation 2020 artists deal with such difficult topics without fear, with both human curiosity and black humor.

See the entire artworks below!

The artists included are: Jenny Hytönen, Leevi Ikäheimo, Annika Korhonen, Liisa-Irmelen Liwata, Joel Stenroos & Konsta Ryösä, Delilah Sykes.

Fruit beautifully arranged on a table crunches as it is trampled beneath pitiless stiletto-heeled boots. The grapes and mandarins don’t stand a chance: the booted foot has everything under its control and the power to get its own way. Jenny Hytönen says that here she is depicting human problems, power relations, images of alternative futures, and a distorted relationship with nature.

Jenny Hytönen (1997): Nectar
Video (2019) Duration 7:15

Leevi Ikäheimo’s video installation ASMR ROLEPLAY: MOTHER EARTH COMFORTS YOU WHILE YOU ARE DYING AND SHE IS DYING WITH YOU is about environmental anxiety. To help us take in this disturbing message Ikäheimo uses a calming ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) voice. Many people feel physically soothed, i.e. experience ASMR, when hearing someone speak in an exaggeratedly calm, whispered voice. The unreal video lets us observe the final moments of Mother Nature ravaged by excess on a dying Planet Earth.

Content remarks: climate anxiety, oppressive mood

Leevi Ikäheimo (1997): ASMR ROLEPLAY: MOTHER EARTH COMFORTS YOU WHILE YOU ARE DYING AND SHE IS DYING WITH YOU
Video (2019) Duration 4:57

In Annika Korhonen’s videowork the story unfolds like a kind of breathlessly absurd diary: “My job is to stare at a dog, which is staring at a horse video. Mind you, it’s quite a good job. No need to leave the house or go anywhere.” To crown it all, for lunch during the working day, the main character is served a foot fungus burger. The video gives us a glimpse into the main character’s mind, which teems with obsessive thoughts – all done with a touch of humour.

Content remarks: mental health, bad language

Annika Korhonen (1996): Have You ever Tasted a Foot Fungus Burger?
Video (2018) Duration 3:34

We humans have always wanted to make our lives easier and have created the most marvellous gadgets to meet our comfort-loving needs. Liisa-Irmelen Liwata’s videowork uses absurdity as a device for addressing humankind’s conflicted relationship with feeling good. Writing Tool asks, does the easy life reach a turning point, beyond which inventions begin to eat their own tail?

Liisa-Irmelen Liwata (1998): Writing Tool
Video (2018) Duration 1:38

Nychthemeron (nɪkˈθɛmərɒn) means a 24-hour day, the time spanning sunrise and sunset before starting again. Joel Stenroos and Konsta Ryösä’s videowork observes this familiar cycle, but on an alien planet. The story’s main character is a strange, nose-like creature that lands on strange ground. It moves through weird and wonderful worlds, until time runs out and the day turns towards its endpoint.

Joel Stenroos (1996) & Konsta Ryösä (1994): Nychthemeron
Video (2019) Duration 2:59

What kind of mumbo jumbo is generated when you try to write about your own attitude to nature using predictive text? And what kind of relationship can you form with a lump of rock? Can you have a conversation with a stone? In Delilah Sykes’ work human, technology and nature are intertwined in a way that gives a twist to familiar formulae.

Delilah Sykes (2000): Intelligence
Video (2019) Duration 8:31