Projects

Arts of Encounter

Jaana - Street Fashion

I needed a haircut and I was bored to decide and cut it myself. So I came up with this idea to ask people I don’t know to do it for me. By doing that I could offer someone a possibility to try out cutting and experimenting hair and it would also be a question of trust and courage.

Kokkola, Wednesday, February the 20th, 2008
I collected the needed equipment (a towel, scissors, water, combs, hair brush, hair fashion magazines in case someone would want to have a model, hair needles, a mirror)
to a bag and took a camping chair with me. I went out for a walk, following my intuition, and asked the passers by if they would cut my hair. There weren’t many people to be seen but I managed to meet some.

The first person I talked to was a middle-aged man. I said to him something like this: Hello, excuse me, are you in a hurry? Could you please cut my hair?” He wasn’t busy and seemed friendly but left quite quickly after hearing my request.

I kept on walking and searching. The second person was an older gentleman in a bit of a hurry. This time I set the question in a slightly different way: “I’m searching for a person who would cut my hair. Could you please do that for me?” He was amused by my idea but didn’t dare to help me. When he left he tapped my shoulder and had a weird look in his eyes.

Then I met a fine lady waiting to cross the street. She was on her way to the bus station but had time to listen to me anyway. Surprised and laughing, she said “yes” to my question: “Could you cut my hair?” We set up my chair to a sunny spot in the park close by and she started to cut. She told that it’s familiar to her to cut her own hair but that it felt weird to cut someone elses. Although she didn’t want to look at the magazines she tried to ask cutting instructions from me but I just said that it’s up to her, she can cut it in any way she wants. A passer by who apparently knew the lady stopped for a little while to joke and comment on what was happening. Otherwise people didn’t care much about us cutting the hair on the pathway of a park. After about 20 minutes when the haircut was finnished we took a picture of us.
She was excited and said she liked the experience.

The project was so fun and succesfull that I might actually do it again sometime if I feel like it. Plus I think the hair became very nice.

Rickard Larsson - Encountering Death

Idea:
When or where, except for funerals, do we discuss the subject, death? Where is death present? According to the "Statistics Sweden" The average lenghts for living if you are a swedish male is 77,73 years and 82,11 years for females.. I´m 28,83 years old. That means that I have ca 48,9 years left to live if I´m lucky. An invitation for confronting Death in game of Chess was made.

Material used:
1 left arm from an anatomy sceleton belongin to the Art School (permision was granted by Mrs Jaana Erkkilä in person)
2 black sheets
1 black curtain from the lecture room in the Art School.
1 Chess Board borrowed from the Kokkola Youth Center.
Tape.
2 Chairs.
1 Table with black cloth.

Strategic placement
1. Outside of Kokkola Library by the snow Cube exhibition. Visible for pedestrians.
2. Inside of Antilla by the main way towards the Café.

Observations
Since the hood covered almost all of my visible ability I basically just saw the chess board. By the time I glimsed up I often saw curious and amused faces. The first game took place outside the library. My opponent was Joel Slotte from the Art school. A comment was made to my opponent by a man. Something in finnish like: You don´t need to worry so much right now...but I´ll be back later to see how you´re going. I got the inpression that he knew a lot about chess and wasn´t really impressed by my scattered offensive chess opening. Inside of Antilla I played against a girl with her teenage friend. She had the black cross neckless and two other which I couldn´t figure out. Could be band names. The pale face painting, heavy black mascara, Black heavy metal shirt, black hair. She liked the concept. She was really into the game and the to girls were intensely discussing the next move. I got her runner pretty easy but then my horse almost got caught in a trap. Maybe I underestimate her, I thought. They were really cute togethter I herd.." helveti saatana" and something like "löperi". I wouldn´t mind losing to her. Some man stopped to make a comment in finnish. A group of women were very amused by us sitting there. They turned around and walked past us once again. Then I saw a pair of neat pink shoes with a white band in the middle. Tight jeans and matching pink tight sweater belonging to a woman speaking to the girls in finnish. Was it their teacher? They were supposed to be in school? The woman left. "You better leave" the girl said appologetic. "I think she is calling the guards.." The game resolved. Remi. Maybe the best ending. I got away from the guards and there were no more encounters.

Conclusion:
Pink shoes with white bands are cool.