The project takes as its starting point the widespread belief that art matters, has a use, or at least should be somehow functional. I decided to consider these ideas seriously, testing them practically so that they resulted in 11 artworks of two categories: “art aimed to save the world” and “art aimed to save the artist”. Together they comprised the show Functional Art at the Studio Emanuel, which I turned for HIAP Open Studios Week in November 2020 during my residency into a small but nevertheless two-story exhibition hall.
Works exhibited:
Red Flag.
Chair for a Muse.
Artist Clock.
photo: Sheung Yiu @sheungyiuphoto/HIAP
Black Square Icon.
Anal Spider.
Kosuth Chair.
photo: Sheung Yiu @sheungyiuphoto/HIAP
Smiley.
Stone.
Small Glass of 2020, Even.
Above-the-Sofa Painting.
photo: Sheung Yiu @sheungyiuphoto/HIAP
Three Exhibition Guest Books.
Functional Art Comments.
photo: Sheung Yiu @sheungyiuphoto/HIAP
Drawings as Functional Art Comments exhibited:
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Acknowledgements:
Miina Hujala and Arttu Merimaa for their kind invitation to HIAP; Anna Rawlings for collaboration, inspiration, and help; Sir Alec Guinness, John le Carré, Marcel Duchamp, Kazimir Malevich, Ilya Kabakov, Jesse Darling, Louise Bourgeois, Semyon Motolyanets, Jyrki Siukonen, and Joseph Kosuth -- for inspiration, as well as for some art devices I probably borrowed; Matthew Cowan for insight and humour; Jakub Bobrowski and Philipp Dochantschi for strong help and great funny vibe; Eleni Tsitsirikou, Paul Flanders and Stephanie Roiko for technical arrangements and all other support; Anna Škodenko for the help with photo documentation and nice company while doing it; Anastasia Artemeva, Kaisu Koivisto, Mark Maher, Minna Henriksson, Sezgin Boynik, Panos Balomenos, Effrosyni Kontogeorgou, Timo Tuhkanen and Aldo for smiles, grins, and [distant] hugs.
Special thanks: Art Foundation Merita.
All photographs by the artist except when otherwise mentioned on the image.
Functional Art show was supported by HIAP.