A Portrait of a Young Man

source: vimeo

Finland is a country with few people inhabiting quite a large area of forests and lakes, so everyone is used to having a lot of space around them. Being different is not easy; it is not acceptable to stand out. Finnish men don’t sweet-talk, or say much at all for that matter. At least this is the stereotype. I wonder if the younger generation is different. A hundred young men sit in the sauna squeezed in next to each other, forming a surface of bare skin. The camera is rolling. The viewer will see the individual as the men start reacting to the heat and leave one by one.
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source: residencyunlimitedorg

Currently based in Helsinki visual artist Heta Kuchka was born in Helsinki in 1974 to a Finnish mother and American father. Her media are drawing, large-scale photography and video. Kuchka’s subject matters combine autobiography, reality documentation and fiction, bringing up discussions about identity, communication, media and society with a humoristic touch.

Lately Kuchka has studied the theme of growing old. Her projects have included elderly people including her own parents as subject matter (Ghosts 2009 & Every Day Is a Bonus 2010). Keep Your Words Sweet.. You May Have To Eat Them! 2011 was a tribute to her American father who brought bluegrass to Finland. His former student taught Kuchka how to play the banjo. At the moment she is working on a project together with her mother where they change identities by drawing portraits of each other and by writing diaries.

Kuchka’s work is increasingly collective. She started a block party in her neighbourhood together with locals. The School Of Activism association with Arto Sivonen and Viivi Lehtonen organises seminars, workshops and more to bring together organisations and urban activists to for example find new ways to help old people living alone.

She wants to pay tribute especially to those old people who do not live at home and have less possibilities to operate in society. During her residency with RU she is working closely with elderly suffering from dementia at the Shore Hill Housing/Lutheran Medican Center in Bay Ridge. The outcome of this project will be exhibited at the Abrons Art Center in November 2012.

Kuchka has been interested in the significant connection between sound and memory since her father passed away in 2000. She studied her personal experience in an intimate video-installation “Daddy’s Girl (Trying not to Cry Listening to that Song)” in 2008. When the police called Kuchka to tell her her father had suddenly passed away, she was at a concert and a certain song was playing. Hearing that particular song would make her burst into tears for years afterwards. In this video Kuchka plays the song for the first time over and over again trying not to cry starting over when she does. This song created such strong physical emotional reaction that it took her back to a moment where her life changed. Her new project would be like the positive version of a similar phenomena.