Hans Rosenström on working with the experiential

Hans Rosenström is currently in New York City for a six month artist residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), funded by Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts, in partnership with Saastamoinen Foundation.

Rosenströms’ practice centers around installations that are carefully produced in relation to the sites where they are experienced. Utilizing a variety of different mediums, from the ephemeral yet tactile qualities of sound, the intricacies of language, to architectural constructions and light, he aims to build sensitive and nuanced milieus that enable confrontations. 

By blending the fictive with the real, he wishes to acknowledge that we share our lives with a multitude of other sensuous beings, human and other, therefore he also often invites the viewers to become part of the work, to feel their presence, to pay attention and reflect upon their interconnectedness with the world around them. We were curious to see where he is with his creative processes and how his time in New York has been so far.

What inspires you as an artist?

Aesthetic experiences, things that make me perceive something in a new way. This could happen through art or literature, but also by spending time outdoors and being curious, sometimes even while getting lost in the world of algorithms. Though I’m often searching for something specific, I try to be sensitive enough to notice when something unexpected takes place.

You mention using multiple mediums in your work from sound, language and architectural constructions to light. Are there any mediums you are most drawn to recently?

Sound has been one recurring medium in my practice over the last few years, but I never work with sound by itself. I always perceive sound in relation to a space and a person experiencing it. I’m interested in using sound as a method of diminishing the distance between an artwork and its audience, so the artwork is more about the experiencer’s perception of that moment. So in the end, I would say that the medium I want to work with is actually presence itself and everything else is just ways of getting there.

Your bio mentions your interest in acknowledging our interconnectedness with the world around us. How does this concept guide your artistic process, and how do you strive to evoke a sense of interconnectedness within your installations?

I think it is important to reflect on the relationships we have with our environments, how we even through our mere being affect our surroundings. In my art practice, I often try to evoke situations that in some way make these relationships apparent, and tangible. One example could be the collaborative artwork, Weaving, yearning (2021) which I created together with Kalle Nio and the composer Aino Venna for the area around King’s Cross station in London. The piece was a song that took place once every evening at the time of sunset. It started with one recorded voice played through a loudspeaker in St Pancras Square, a modern architectural plaza surrounded by glass facades. After a while another voice could be heard, singing in a distance at the north end of the square. From here the song moved slowly, urging the listeners to follow the sounds through a few city blocks up to Granary Square. Very organically the audience members indeed followed the voices, forming a procession, an experience that was both intimate but also shared with others. What I believe the work managed to do, is that it added an alternative layer to the cityscape, a moment that helped us to sense and feel it, and ourselves, in a different way.

How has the environment in NYC and the US influenced your thinking and artistic process so far?

That is a good question… The days here have been filled with different inspiring programs and activities, and my mind is constantly rushing in different directions. I feel like I want to do everything and be everywhere all at once. It has taken some time to find a balance between the city and my mind, my focus. Luckily I feel like I’m starting to figure that out now. Then what is left for the future is the question of filtering all these different impressions and information, digesting them, and making them into my reflections… I believe this experience will keep feeding me long after I’m home.

What do you hope to take with you from your time in New York?

Besides all the new friends, connections and inspiration, I’m hoping to pay even more attention to details in my work. To work harder. But also to enjoy work, and to enjoy the little social safety net that we still have in the Nordic countries, and safeguard for what we have left. Here it becomes so apparent how precarious life is.

What do you have coming up during your residency?

Here in NYC we will have open studios at International Studio and Curatorial program, ISCP on Friday the 12th and Saturday 13th of April, which you are all warmly welcome to. More info on the ISCP website.

In Finland I am participating in a group show at Amos Rex Museum in Helsinki. The show is titled I feel, for now and it opens to the public on the 27th of March. This summer I will present a new artwork in a group exhibition, Enter the Woodland Spirit, in Tartu, Estonia.  My piece has been made specifically for a beautiful catalog room in the library of the Estonian Literary Museum.

Questions and photos: Sini-Ida Heiskanen

Published: April 1, 2024