after spending some time at the pixelache festival, we walked around kiasma for a while. as per usual so many good things going on there. highlights were some pictures of ireland and other places by finnish photographer heli rekula (one of the pictures/video instillations was of an island off the coast of ireland that i only knew by its english name (the great blasket island) but in this piece it was labelled using its original irish name “an blascaod mór” so it took me a few seconds to decipher it).

other interesting pieces where some photos by finnish artist miklos gaál. i had seen some of them before in a magazine we got in college from the finnish paper maker amerpap. the photos are for the most part out of focus, but have a streak running through them that is in focus. these in focus parts give an optical illusion of everything being in minature, its a really nice effect and something that is hard to describe. there are two examples on this page (the top one being heitaranta (a beach) and the bottom pic is of a protest march, both being taken in helsinki city centre)

next up came my favourite. the piece was called “kylä” (village) and it is by the finnish artist jaakko niemelä. it has a disc of about 1metre diameter rotating. on this disc is a small town made out of wire to give a wireframe look. a light shined upon the rotating village and the shadow created (in the picture below) was such a simple yet incredibly effective piece, i sat there staring at it for ages as it spun around and around and around. i want it 🙂

after this a piece by the finnish artist ilkka halso caught my eye, but it wasnt until yesterday when i was reading an article about him in fin magazine (more about this soon) that i realised that it was all computer generated. the image called “theatre 1” had a computer generated auditorium, but the stage was a waterfall. when i saw it in kiasma i thought it was some fancy new japanese theatre, but it was all an illusion. the series is on his website you can download a pdf of the series or just look at the images. some really fantastic ideas and effects on there.

update: some of exhibits end today (24th of april) so hurry if its today and you are in helsinki.