Year of the Horse (Sitting on a Rock)
video 12 min. 28 sec (2003)
Part 1. I am standing with a blue scarf on my shoulders close to the camera, obscuring part of the view from the cliff, on Harakka Island, 64 times, approximately once a week from January 2002 to January 2003.
Part 2. I am sitting with a blue scarf on my shoulders on a rock in the landscape below the cliff, 64 times, on the same occasions.
Year of the Horse – Day and Night of the Goat (installation)
Year of the Horse (left image)
Part 1. I am standing with a blue scarf on my shoulders close to the camera, obscuring part of the view from the cliff, on Harakka Island, 64 times, approximately once a week from January 2002 to January 2003.
Part 2. I am sitting with a blue scarf on my shoulders on a rock in the landscape below the cliff, 64 times, on the same occasions.
Day and Night of the Goat (right image)
Part 1. I am sitting with a blue scarf on my shoulders on a rock in the landscape, 13 times during a day and a night, with two-hour intervals, during Easter, April 20 noon to April 21 noon 2003.
Part 2. The rock in the landscape filmed 13 times, on the same occasions.
https://www.av-arkki.fi/works/hevosen-vuosi-vuohen-vuorokausi-installaatio/
Wind Rail I on Mount Randa
see separate exposition published in Ruukku: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/42484/42634
Sitting on a Rock at Muu
performance at Muu gallery 15.9.2003
(unfortunately no documentation remains, except a photo from the discussion afterwards - on the right)
Crystal Ball
Installation 2 x 20 min. ( 2003)
Part 1. (Sitting on the Shore). I am sitting on the shore on concrete blocks looking out at sea, with a dark blue scarf on my shoulders. Part 2. (Crystal Ball on the Shore). A crystal ball is sitting on the same concrete blocks, video filmed from varying distances.
Year of the Horse - Calendar 1-2
Video 11 min 10 sec (2015)
During the year of the horse 2014 I revisited once a month the site on harakka Island, which I visited once a week during the year of the horse 2002, wearing the same dark blue scaf.
Part 1: I stand on the hill in front of the camer, covering most of the view.
Part 2: I sit on a rock on the slope.
https://www.av-arkki.fi/works/year-of-the-horse-calendar-1-2/
Toistamiseen - Videoteoksia Harakan saarelta ja Kilpisjärveltä
[Repeatedly - Video works from Harakka Island and Lake Kilpis]
Muu gallery, Helsinki 7.10.-11.11.2017
Approximation of the set up with two projections and a monitor:
Year of the Horse to the left, real time feed from the street outside to the right, Day and Night of the Monkey in monitor below.
Wind Rail II on Harakka Island
see separate exposition published in Ruukku: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/42484/42634
Day and Night of the Goat - Easter
video 6 min 30 sec. (2003)
I am sitting with a blue scarf on my shoulders on a rock in the landscape, 13 times during a day and a night, with two-hour intervals, during Easter, April 20 noon to April 21noon 2003. The rock in the landscape was also recorded 13 times, on the same occasions.
https://www.av-arkki.fi/works/vuohen-vuorokausi-paasiainen/
Sitting on a Rock (Rock with Text)
video documentary 6 min 20 sec. (2003)
A rock in the landscape on Harakka island filmed 13 times during a day and a night, with two-hour intervals, during Easter, April 20 noon to April 21 noon 2003.
Voice in Finnish, English subtitles.
Parts of the voice-over text published as "Moved by the Wind" (artist's page) in Performance Research Volume 8 No 4. December 2003, 126-129.
Istun kivellä (Sitting on a Rock)
sound file, the text in Finnish spoken and recorded by AA.
The text could be listened to either in the gallery space or on the rock in question during the exhibition "Year of the Horse" in 2003. It was used as a voice over text in the video "Rock with Text" (2003).
“Repeat, Revisit, Recreate—Two Times Year of the Horse”. In PARSE Journal Issue #3 Repetitions and Reneges. 2016, 43-59. Online http://www.parsejournal.com/article/repeat-revisit-recreate-two-times-year-of-the-horse/
“How to do things with repetition?” video with text in Ice-Hole #6 The Live Art Journal
http://www.icehole.fi/vol-6_issue2_2017/video-by-annette-arlander/
“Tuulikaide – Eräänlainen alku” / “Wind Rail – Sort of a Beginning” Ruukku – Studies in Artistic Research 1/ 2013. https://www.researchcatalogue.net/profile/show-exposition?exposition=42484
Chapter 5. "Landscape as a view - Painting, video image and tourism" in Performing Landscape – Notes on Site-specific Work and Artistic Research. Texts 2001-2011. Acta Scenica 28. Theatre Academy Helsinki 2012, 135-160. https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/37613
Chapter 11. "How Landscape Moves Me" in Performing Landscape – Notes on Site-specific Work and Artistic Research. Texts 2001-2011. Acta Scenica 28. Theatre Academy Helsinki 2012, 321-355. https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/37613
“Miten maisema minua liikuttaa” [How the landscape moves me] in Olli Mäkinen & Tiina Mäntymäki (eds.) Taide ja liike. Keho – Tila – Ääni – Kuva - Kieli [Art and Movement]. University of Vaasa. Research Papers 282. Vaasa 2007, 143-181.
“Performing Landscape” in Soile Veijola (ed.) Landscapes of Presence – Aesthetics, Amenities and Technologies. University of Lapland Publications in the Social Sciences B 47. Rovaniemi 2003, 145-168.
“Moved by the Wind” Performance Research Volume 8 No 4. December 2003, 126-129.
Istun kivellä (text in Finnish)
Istun kivellä eri tavalla kuin tuolilla. Kivi on kova ja kylmä, mutta taatusti tukeva. Tällä kivellä istuin vuoden ajan viikottain, keskimäärin, ja katselin, miten maailma ympärillä muuttui. Kokeeksi istuin pääsiäisenä vuorokauden, parin tunnin välein. Silloin vasta tajusin, miten suuren osan ajasta on yö. Nukkuessa sen unohtaa. Kivelle yö on varmaan yhtä totta kuin päivä. Kivi tietää mitä on olla paikallaan. Ihmiselle se on aika vaikeaa. Ainakin minulle. En haluaisi olla kivi, en todellakaan. Mutta välillä toivoisin osaavani olla hiljaa, istua ja ihmetellä. Ihmiselle istuminen on outo tila. Odottaminen on vielä oudompi. Eläinten lailla ihminen liikkuu ja etsii, keräilee ja kokoaa, menee sinne minne on menossa tai harhailee, kulkee, kaipaa ja kurkottaa. Kivi odottaa että maailman meno siirtää sen sijoiltaan.
Istuin tällä kivellä, koska se sattuu sijaitsemaan kauniilla paikalla. Ja vielä sallitun reitin varrella. Se on muutenkin ihmeellinen kivi. Jos sitä koputtelee, se kumisee. Luulisin että se on graniittia, mutten tiedä varmuudella, enkä ole ottanut selvää. Ei ole väliksi mitä se on, se on kivi.
Mah jong pelissä sanotaan ”istun kivellä”, kun on enää yksi pelinappula jäljellä. Sillä tavalla varoittaa kanssapelaajia, että peli saattaa piankin olla pättymässä. Ja että itsellä on hyvät mahdollisuudet selviytyä voittajana. Kun istun kivellä en tunne itseäni voittajaksi. Tunnen olevani osa odottajia. Ympärillä kaikki odottaa, kevään tuloa, syksyn tuloa, auringon nousua, auringon laskua, sadetta, poutaa, tuulen tyyntymistä, myrskyn nousemista, kauniin sään paluuta, vaikka mitä. Minäkin odotan aina jotakin, muutosta tai ihmettä, vähintään. Useimmat ihmiset pelkäävät muutosta, niin varmaan minäkin, pohjimmiltani, mutta tietoinen minäni haluaa sitä. Muutosta, mitä tahansa. Monet puhuvat säilyttämisestä, varjelemisesta, vaalimisesta. He toivovat että maailma säilyisi ennallaan. Virallisesti tietysti vain, että se mikä on heille arvokasta pysyisi samanlaisena, mutta ajatus ulottuu helposti kaikkeen. Minäkin toivoisin, että kivi säilyisi kivenä eikä muuttuisi muoviksi, että kallioilla ei olisi rumia kylttejä, että vesi ympärillä säilyisi vetenä, öljyttömänä. Silti odotan muutosta, ihmettä - ainakin itselleni, itsessäni.
Sitting on a Rock (text in English)
Sitting on a rock is different than sitting on a chair. A rock is hard and cold, though certainly stable. I sat on this rock for a year, once a week, approximately, and watched the world around me changing. During Easter I sat for a day and a night, with two hour intervals. Only then did I realise how large a part of time it is night. While sleeping you forget that. For a rock the night is probably as real as the day. A rock knows what it means to stay in one place. For a human being it is quite difficult. For me at least. I do not wish I were a rock, certainly not. But sometimes I wish I knew how to be still, to sit and wonder. Sitting is a strange condition for a human being. Waiting even more so. Like animals humans roam and search, collect and gather, go where they are going or keep erring, walking, longing and reaching. A rock waits for the ways of the world to unhinge it from its site. I sat on this rock because it lies in a beautiful spot. And on a permitted route. It is a strange rock. If you knock on it, it sounds hollow. I suppose it is granite, but I do not know for sure, and I have not asked anybody. It does not matter what it is, it is a rock.
In the game of Mah Jong (in Finnish) you say ”I am sitting on a rock”, when you have only one piece left. Thus you warn your fellow players that the game might soon be ending, and that you have good chances to be the winner. When I sit on the rock I do not feel like a winner. I feel at one with those who wait. Around me everything is waiting, for the spring to arrive, the autumn to arrive, the sun to rise, the sun to set, for rain, for sunshine, for the wind to calm down, the storm to rise, good weather to return, for almost anything. I am always waiting for something as well, for a change or a miracle, at least. Most people fear changes and so do I, probably, at heart, but my conscious self desires change. Any kind of change. Many people speak of conserving, protecting, caring. They wish for the world to remain unaltered. Officially they only wish those things they value to stay the same, of course, but the idea easily extends to concern everything. I, too, wish the rock would remain a rock and not turn into plastic, no ugly signs to appear on the cliffs, the water around me to remain water without oil. Still I do wait for a change, a miracle - at least for myself, within myself.
