Susan's Writings

The Boyhood of Releigh by Sir John Everett Millais, 1870 Tate Gallery, London

Let me tell you a story

FOR CENTURIES, storytellers have conveyed events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Some storytellers have brought magical characters to our life, organising information and building emotions up among us. Some bedtime stories have kept us awake, while others have taken us to magnificent worlds.

Storytelling has existed as long as humanity has had language. Traditionally, oral stories were committed to memory and then passed on from generation to generation. The Kalevala, for example, tells stories up to 5,000 years old. Stories of creation, the origin of fire, the birth of the song, spirits of the forest, sea and sky having adventures in an ancient world are comprised within the Finnish national epic.

Storyteller and Musician Nick Hennessey was lured by this masterpiece of Finnish literature in 1998. In 2000 he travelled to Finland and Karelia where he was lucky enough to meet old, bright eyed women who warmly shared with him all of their memories.

The agile world we live in allows storytellers to cross borders and tell their stories in faraway lands through brilliant and colourful performances. This is the case with Hennessey, who performs the Kalevala in the UK.

Hennessey will be hosting a workshop on the skills of storytelling on Sunday 3 May from 16:00 to 18:00. During the workshop, you will look at structure and style of traditional stories exploring the techniques used to tell them well. This is a unique opportunity to meet a master storyteller and learn his craft.

FinnBritPlayers

Fredrikinkatu 20A, Helsinki

Registration: Matti Keltanen: keltanen@gmail.com

www.nickhennessey.co.uk

Susan Fourtane – Helsinki Times

Image – Tate Gallery, London

The Legacy of Beige

Annika von hausswolff has been on the forefront in making photography one of the most influential forms of media in contemporary art. She attracted attention in the 1990s with her staged works that bordered on documentary photography. Already in the series Back to Nature (1993) she employed the stylistic and contextual elements that would later define her signature style of production.

The motifs of loneliness, frustration and melancholy link her art to the tradition of surrealism. von Hausswolff has long delved into the unconscious and her works are a continued exploration transforming fleeting psychological states into uncanny photographs and sculptures.

In von Hausswolff’s works the viewer finds herself in a dreamlike setting where common situations and events transform into something irrational and unreal.

Her works touch on questions of corporeality, gender and domination. Hiding and revealing are also frequently recurring themes, which are manifested in the often used harsh flashlight and richly draped curtains.

Another dominant feature in her oeuvre is the human body. The characters we encounter do not seek contact; quite the opposite. Their backs are turned as if in deep thought and their eyes closed like a veil – physically present but constantly unattainable.

Showing through 17 May at the Turku Art Museum, Aurakatu 26, Turku, Finland. The exhibition is supported by the Swedish Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Susan Fourtane – Helsinki Times
Image – Annika von Hausswolff

The finn–brit players are organising a technical workshop where they will cover as much about sound and lighting design and operation as can possibly be fitted into one day. The aim is to help produce a sound track and lighting plan for a simple play.

The workshop has been designed for directors who want to learn more about the possibilities and new trends in sound and lighting, as well as for anybody interested in becoming a techie or who wants to know about what the people in black do. The workshop is also open for those who already are techies but want to learn more.

Organised by Fionna O’Sullivan, Nick Meinke and Antti Hermunen, it will be held at the FINN–BRIT premises on Fredrikinkatu 20A, Helsinki, on Sunday 26 April from 12:00 to 18:00.

For more information, visit www.finnbritplayers.com

Susan Fourtane – Helsinki Times