POLKU (The Path)

is the working title for an art piece which is made with the youth for the environment which they inhabit. The artwork will be executed on benches by painting and drawing. The benches will form a path of interconnected stories when the benches will be transported to different areas of Eura. 

The theme of the work is fantasy world, something not quite from this reality but invented and imaginative. One can find dreams, joy, fears, encounters, different roles etc. These are things one can expect to find in their own lives. With youth, you don't have to explain the options so it will be interesting to see the stylish choices they make. Where the benches will be placed and what kind of a path they form will be decided later. Certain is that the end result will be unique and full of surprises. A voice of the youth.

Noora's artwork can be found at Instagram "nooraylipieti" and she can be reached by email before the workshops, should questions arise: noora (at) nooraylipieti.com. Signing up for the workshops at the website of Taidehalli Kivistö www.taidehallikivisto.fi or messaging directly to the artist. Workshops are made in collaboration with Taidehalli Kivistö.

VAMPIRE PORTRAITS AND DIVING IN ON ART

When a group of 6th graders, a visual artist and a few rag rugs are brought to the same space, you will get Extraordinary Longtooth and Lonely Count. Artworks in question were created in December 2021 on a two day community art workshop with the class 6A of Karin koulu.

The art pieces were worked on two groups, respecting not only one's own but the artistic process of the other participants as well. The methods involved bravery to go with the flow and intuitive experiments. While doing all that the students had insightful conversations about art and the freedom of creativity. The process took the students, through common goals, to the world of mysteries where an image of a vampire was symbolic and breaking constraints. In the student's interpretations the characters showed a variety of sides, loneliness, superiority, disagreement and other emotions. The finished pieces do reach inside us for something primitively real and touching.

Ylipieti writes about the process from the context of contemporary art: The project was realized in a school but was not necessarily art pedagogical. From the view of contemporary art the students have created a communal art piece where the content comes from the group, made by the group. Working on the art pieces can be characterized as performative and so making the process of creating to be a part of the art work.

Doctor of Arts, a visual artist, researcher and curator Mika Karhu gives his take on philosopher and psychologist John Dewey: "Instead of the artistic discourse getting ritually stagnated we can approach the situation by taking a look on John Dewey's concept of experiencing art. Experiencing art is a communal experience. With this Dewey means that art is part of a social experience which cannot be separated from the dynamic of taking action and common experiences of a social group. Dewey says that this is the difference from artistic discourse to separate art with different concepts to form autonomical constructs, their existence being controlled by a limited context and their rules. Art represents something with its own laws and even beyond social world. Only reachable by thinking and aesthetic sense.
Source: Taide, rituaali ja kokemus, Mika Karhu, Taitu 10 years - scientific seminar.