Cold Spell in Spring

The end of March and beginning of April have provided a veritable ‘cold spell in spring’, the rather boring translation of the Finnish expression ‘takatalvi’ or ‘back winter’, winter suddenly returning. There has been repeated snowfalls and the slopes of Kaivopuisto Park are still covered with ice. When I visited the pine tree for the last time in a while the sun was finally feeling a little warm. The gradual transformation of the snowy landscape can be see in the still images (here). I have added a new element to my practice, that is, after the Tai Chi tree pose I do the usual balancing exercise, the yoga asana called the two-legged tree pose (see image) on the other side of the tree, before finishing by holding on to a branch of the pine. Considering a possible video installation adding a new element while underway is not such a good idea, although the exercise feels much better this way. Moreover, I have recorded spoken notes in English after each session, and transcribed them into text with the help of an app, too. (see here). The day before I had a conversation with the reclining pine as well and edited it into a video (see here) and also a podcast episode (listen here). My topic was the question of liveness, which came to my mind when discussing aspects of liveness in a performance related to the increase in various online experiments. I have also been planning a performance with the working title “Practising with Pines”, to be shown 26.4. as part of the event Seven of Seven organised by Myymälä2 gallery (see here). There I will use videos recorded earlier in Örö and elsewhere, however, and it will probably not be streamed..