Talk

Jyrki Siukonen: What exactly were you thinking? On making art, not an artist statement

Making a piece of art is hardly ever a mere analytical process. Things can be planned and designed on a drawing board but the actual physical task often leads us to situations where decisions are based on an unclear or illogical premise: “What if I try it this way?” Such shifts may prove just as crucial as they are difficult to verbalise. When it comes to making of art, our daily studio routines often escape exact wording. We all have our own silent ways.

In this lecture I will look at the inherent silence against the history of the modernist artist and ask if (and how) her practice could be defended today as the art education is laying more emphasis on politics of making and theoretical acuity that to making itself. Is there a way to argue for the physicality of art making and defend a position that will not partake in the verbose sphere of contemporary artistic practices?

Jyrki Siukonen is an artist and researcher. He was the first artist to earn a doctorate in Fine Art in Finland (2001). He has worked in University of Leeds (Gregory Fellow), Finnish Academy of Fine Arts (Professor of Sculture) and University of Lapland (Senior Lecturer). Siukonen has exhibited and published widely. His book Hammer and Silence. A Short Introduction to the Philosophy of Tools came out in 2015.
Siukonen is co-supervisor for research fellow Tina Jonsbu at Oslo National Academy of the Arts.

Photo: Portrait of the artist Varvara Stepanova, taken by her husband Alexandr Rodchenko in Moscow in the 1920s.