Installation view from Hämeenlinna Art Museum, Art Realm Biennale 2024
Sermon II
2024
videoprojection
5,35 loop
edition of 3
song: Jäähyväiset Aseille by Kollaa kestää, 1979.
singer: Kerttu Lätti
mixing: Hanna Rajakangas
animation: SUN EFFECTS / Mikko Kunnari & Pekka Tavi
Installation view from Hämeenlinna Art Museum. Photo by Jussi Tiainen
short example from the song
Usually the aim of a sermon is to evoke thoughts and feelings about the texts of the Bible and to comment on the prevailing situation of the community. The approach is similar to works of art: both comment on the prevailing time and its phenomena. In the Sermon series, my starting point has been a critical examination of people and their actions in relation to each other, to the surrounding world, and its objects
Sermon II is a fable dressed in the form of a video installation. A fable is often an animal tale in which animals or plants are given human characteristics. In my work, the narrator is a skinless pig, who directs its song to the viewer. Visible is just flesh and bones. The character is a reminder and a sum, which also refers to the figure of the guardian in the esoteric tradition. In the figure of the guardian, the seeker faces their own fears. In my work, the figure takes the form of collective karma: a pig that is stripped of its skin. The pig urges listeners to realize a characteristic of the human species: the possibility of making moral judgments. This is a unique human characteristic and an opportunity improve the living conditions of all living beings.
The pig has been close to humans through domestication and the meat industry that developed from it. Our physical encounters with the species in living form are rare these days. Outside the meat industry, we mainly encounter the animal on farm tours and on the shelves of grocery stores. However, the pig is abundantly represented in various cultural representations and images. Folklore, language images and various audiovisual means of expression have created cultural and place-related meanings on the subject. The aspirations of my work are based on posthumanist thought, where the life and being of all species are inherently valuable, and we as humans should recognize and acknowledge it.