1GB Sand and Stones

1GB Sand and Stones / 1GB Hiekkaa ja kiviä

HD video projection, 32:27

Collaboration with Maija Annikki Savolainen for her /d a t a c e n t r e exhibition, at Bioartsociety SOLU space

Exhibition description on SOLU website:

/d a t a c e n t r e by artist Maija Annikki Savolainen is an exhibition shifting through time. Mirroring the format of a residency, the exhibition performs as a site for ongoing research, material experimentation and knowledge transmission. Throughout the duration of the show, Savolainen will continue to work with the exhibition’s components, developing new constellations of text, photographs and materials such as glass, quartz stones and geopolymers made of municipal waste incineration slag. Through fusing and re-configuring these materials, Savolainen asks what kind of fossils digital pictures will leave behind.

Whilst drawing on Savolainen’s long term research about photographic gesture and transmission of knowledge through light, the exhibition reflects on a residency undertaken in rural Scotland in 2019: North AiR: Expanding Entanglements. Responding to the sites and surroundings of northern Scotland Savolainen was magnetised by the geological formations and high concentration of stone circles in these areas.

/d a t a c e n t r e presents stone circles as ancient data centres: sites for the gathering, processing and distributing knowledge. Savolainen explores quartz stone as a connecting material which bonds together the sites of Tomnaverie, a neolithic stone circle in Aberdeenshire, and SOLU, a contemporary art gallery in Helsinki. It is speculated that crushed quartz, found around stone circles, was once connecting people to the moon and stars in neolithic times. Today, silicon made of ultra-pure quartz is known for its semiconducting properties and is the material foundation for our wireless communication infrastructure. Over time and space the function of the mineral remains the same, connecting us through the skies.

Over the course of the exhibition a sequence of reading circles will be held in SOLU to generate energy, knowledge transmission and speculative enquiry around the work. These miniature rituals invite a series of guests from a range of disciplines to present texts which can be collectively read and discussed. There will be four reading circles in the series, the first will be hosted by curator Yvonne Billimore on Thursday 3th December 18–20h. Originally planned to take place within the exhibition at SOLU, the reading circles will now be held as online events over zoom. Further details here.

/d a t a c e n t r e has been curated in collaboration with Yvonne Billimore who previously worked at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop. Although her time there did not align with Savolainen’s residency, their shared interest in the location’s matters and materials have been the foundations for this collaboration.

The exhibition’s video projections are realized in collaboration with Otso Havanto, a multidisciplinary new media artist and maker.