|
Ecological concern also holds the Land of a ThoUSAnd Lakes in its grasp. With alarming frequency, the inside pages of the newspaper carry small and therefore apparently not very important pieces about acid rain, which causes biologically completely dead lakes, about fall-out after nuclear catastrophes in the Soviet Union, about the damaging side effects of the immense paper industry with the attendant deforestation, monotonous production plantations and chlorinated waste water that remains after bleaching the pulp. Of course, sometimes attention is drawn to the whole range of inevitable consequences of the presence of so many people. Hakola expresses her own concern about these news items in an installation consisting of a wooden sculpture that contains eight monitors mounted in a circle like the staves of a Ferris wheel. These 'windows on the world' are filled by four players, such that opposite screens show the same picture. To allow clear presentation of the complexity of the problem, Hakola has reduced the relationship of mankind with nature to an exemplary dichotomy. On the one side she presents nature in a post romantic view, as the idea of a simulated garden. At the other end of the spectrum there is a barren desert that can only serve as a rubbish dump. She found suitable locations for both possibilities in Finland. The material for the first scenario was provided by the botanical gardens of the University of Helsinki and the rocky coast of the island Sveaborg; the largest dump in the country offered ample opportunity for a visual foretaste of the future if a drastic change in policy does not take place. A human figure is projected dancing across all the images as if to show that mankind has not yet made a definitive choice. And yet, we must escape from this revolving stalemate situation if we want to avoid being crushed under the weight of a steadily progressing industrial 'civilisation' or being paralysed by an unrealistic longing for paradise lost.
–
Erik Daams
|
Camera: Raimo Uunila, Veli Granö, Marikki Hakola,
Sound: Gustav Alenius, Marikki Hakola,
Dancer: Ari Tenhula,
Computer graphics: Milla Moilanen,
Construction: Esa Parkatti, Lauri Rissanen, Epa Tamminen,
With thanks to: Avek Petretti Art Centre, Kimmo Koskela Ky,
Production: Kaligari Oy
|
|
1 9 9 2 
