Eeva-Mari Haikala’s (b. 1974) new work Vie Coye (Citron) takes place in the space between still life and performance. The performance component of the work was shot over thirty days in HIAP’s studio on Suomenlinna. Each day, Haikala placed herself behind a lemon still life on a table and made a small gesture, which the camera recorded. The performer’s voice and appearance change over time, but the lifeless objects stay the same throughout the month. Nevertheless, Vie Coye (Citron) blurs the boundary between the lifeless and the living, since, unlike traditional still-life painting, in Vie Coye (Citron) the artist’s body forms part of the composition. Here Haikala uses the language of video and performance to ask questions about the passage of time and transience, while, at the same time, exploring the still-life genre in painting.

Eeva-Mari Haikala lives and works in Helsinki and London. Her main media are video, photography and installation. Haikala’s works are frequently linked with the performance-art tradition and she also does live performances. Recently, she has been interested in the possibilities of the moving image and performance to include aspects of painting, especially the genres of still-life and the landscape.

Thanks: AVEK / Heidi Tikka