Jasmine Färling & Clare Bottomley

How to communicate & other experiments

5.-28.7.2024

Wed—Fri at 12-18

Sat—Sun at 11-16

Opening reception on Thursday July 4th at 17-20

SUOMEKSI

How to communicate & other experiments is the first exhibition of Jasmine Färling and Clare Bottomley as artistic collaborators. The exhibition presents the work Färling and Bottomley made whilst at Mustarinda artist residency. The spring arrival of migratory birds acted as the starting point for our experiments. The isolation and remoteness brought a stark contrast to our daily technology-filled everyday lives in the city. We wanted to learn to communicate like the birds around us, instead of expressing feelings through 250 character text messages and forwarding each other viral memes.

Within our installation of How to communicate & other experiments we aim to create a presence of birds in the space through the nest-like structures that mimic the habitats of different bird species throughout the gallery space. Creating the presence of our feathery friends is an opportunity to develop a beyond-human experience, where human and bird existence intermingle and co-exist in close proximity. In a two-channel video installation we aim to channel the display of capercaillies. Soundscape and music for the video piece is created by Chiara Floris.

Production of exhibition works is provided by Aalto University Department of Art and Media grant, Färling’s artistic work is supported by Kone Foundation. Exhibition opening drinks are sponsored by Fat Lizard.

Clare Bottomley is an artist, educator, and early-career researcher originally from Gloucester, UK, now based in Helsinki, Finland. Bottomley completed her Master's degree at the Royal College of Art and is currently a doctoral researcher at Aalto University. Her practice combines photography and performativity to reimagine and fiction alternative possibilities in photographic representation. Recently, her work has been shown at the Arnolfini in Bristol, the Barbican in London, and at the Midlands Art Center (MAC) in Birmingham.

Jasmine Färling is a visual artist and documentary photographer from Helsinki. Färling is completing their studies in the Master's programme in Photography at Aalto University and has graduated from Swansea College of Art in the UK. The materiality of photography, publications and exhibitions are an essential part of their working process. In 2023, the solo exhibition Nothing is true, everything is possible was exhibited at Galleria Uusi Kipinä in Lahti, B-Galleria in Turku and Kulttuuritalo in Laikku in Tampere. The works deal with the role of photography in the media, the construction of realities through images, and the intrinsic power structures within archive collections.


Roundtable discussion with the artist duos Clare Bottomley & Jasmine Färling and Nina Mutik & Vili von Nissinen