THE FUTURE IS HUMAN is an audiovisual conversation between Tiina Palm and singer-songwriter Emilia Neuvonen.
In the project the two artists examine structures of power and systems supporting our contemporary world, as well as the history behind them, through their own family stories and those of 30+ women with immigration in their background whose voices are often not heard enough in our society.
The project aims to cultivate and increase the culture of conversation between different groups of people, whether the difference be of age, religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender or opinion, through workshops and live performances that always include open talk time.
"We believe stories are shared by people everywhere, and through them we can reach people on a personal level. In this time of extreme polarisation, it is important to be able to feel empathy, build bridges and to try to share understanding. We hope to encourage young people considering their future plans and open conversations by giving tools to critically look at world history and power structures in our contemporary world. We believe that art in its various forms, is the most powerful tool our society has to raise questions, change attitudes, heal wounds and create better visions for the future. We want to work towards bringing painful issues to the surface to be examined and addressed through art."
In the project the two artists examine structures of power and systems supporting our contemporary world, as well as the history behind them, through their own family stories and those of 30+ women with immigration in their background whose voices are often not heard enough in our society.
The project aims to cultivate and increase the culture of conversation between different groups of people, whether the difference be of age, religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender or opinion, through workshops and live performances that always include open talk time.
"We believe stories are shared by people everywhere, and through them we can reach people on a personal level. In this time of extreme polarisation, it is important to be able to feel empathy, build bridges and to try to share understanding. We hope to encourage young people considering their future plans and open conversations by giving tools to critically look at world history and power structures in our contemporary world. We believe that art in its various forms, is the most powerful tool our society has to raise questions, change attitudes, heal wounds and create better visions for the future. We want to work towards bringing painful issues to the surface to be examined and addressed through art."
Own family stories as basis for creative exploration.
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Tiina's father Veikko Palm drank lye (caustic soda/sodium hydroxide) when he was 3 years old in 1930. Lye is a highly corrosive substance, but it was commonly used as a household cleaning product still in the thirties in Finland. Many children accidentally drank lye because it looked like milk, and many died a horribly painful death by starvation because the lye would etch their food pipe. Some survived to tell their stories. Little Veikko survived on cream and milk for two years.
He was a sensitive boy in a time when boys were not allowed to be sensitive and that one traumatic event shaped every step of the rest of his life until his death at the age of 92, his death originally also caused by that event in 1930, as at the age of 76 he started getting pneumonias, often more than 10 per year, due to surgeries in the 1970s to replace his food pipe. |
Tiina's dad Veikko Palm with his sister Eila, circa 1930.
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Emilia's mother Susan Chikasa and her sister Martha 1996
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Emilia was adopted to Finland from Sambia as a baby. She found her Sambian family in the Finnish version of the tv programme Long Lost Family.
In the project Emilia examines the themes and thoughts raised through her life journey, as well as the stories of her families in Sambia and Finland. |
Lemminkäinen's Mother 2020
Pastiche of painting Lemminkäinen's Mother by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1897.
https://www.kansallisgalleria.fi/en/object/398211
https://www.kansallisgalleria.fi/en/object/398211
The Wounded Angel 2020
Photographic pastiche of painting The Wounded Angel by Hugo Simberg, 1903.
https://www.kansallisgalleria.fi/en/object/396251
https://www.kansallisgalleria.fi/en/object/396251
The Convalescent 2020
Photographic pastiche of The Convalescent by Helene Schjerfbeck, 1888.
The Future is Human exhibition 2020
The exhibition presents pieces sun dyed with photography and text, on wood and textile, as well as sculptures of wood and
yarn. As with her zero waste fashion collection before, Palm finds leftover and discarded materials for her works in order
to raise questions of our need for excess consumption as well as the imminent end of material resources this century
will face. Palm uses sun dyeing as a technique because it reminds her of her first creative love of film photography, the
sun dyeing development process being similar to dark room work.
Soft materials are of particular importance to Palm because of their ties with human history, as well as with her own family
history. In her claim the Future is Human, Palm searches for the most touching qualities that unite people everywhere and
through the use of soft materials intuitively weaves them together in her pieces. In her sun dyeing works she uses her
images from Senegal, photos of her own eye, her daughter’s eye and repetitive text for effect. Behind the ghost-like images
questions that bring together capitalism, colonialism, race, gender and ecology can be found.
yarn. As with her zero waste fashion collection before, Palm finds leftover and discarded materials for her works in order
to raise questions of our need for excess consumption as well as the imminent end of material resources this century
will face. Palm uses sun dyeing as a technique because it reminds her of her first creative love of film photography, the
sun dyeing development process being similar to dark room work.
Soft materials are of particular importance to Palm because of their ties with human history, as well as with her own family
history. In her claim the Future is Human, Palm searches for the most touching qualities that unite people everywhere and
through the use of soft materials intuitively weaves them together in her pieces. In her sun dyeing works she uses her
images from Senegal, photos of her own eye, her daughter’s eye and repetitive text for effect. Behind the ghost-like images
questions that bring together capitalism, colonialism, race, gender and ecology can be found.
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