Sirkku Ketola

Visual artist Sirkku Ketola is FCINY’s artist-in-residency for the months of October and November 2017. Ketola’s main technique is serigraphy, which she applies to installation, video, sound, and performance.

For Sirkku Ketola, handicraft is a method of slowing down the digital image stream surrounding us, as well as a tool for understanding the relation between human and matter. Ketola’s work practice is slow and her projects often take years to finish.

A Body Called Paula is one of the long-term projects Ketola is currently working on. Part installation, part performance, the work revolves around a large serigraphy ornament and the idea of repetition. A Body Called Paula was presented earlier this year in Toronto, Canada, and in Ketola’s hometown Turku, Finland. The third part of the artwork will be seen in New York during her residency period, and the fourth in Helsinki in Spring 2018.

For Ketola, the residency period will be a time for a professional transition, as she will also start working on a new installation during her stay in the City. Ketola plans on drawing inspiration for the new work by observing New York as the Western capital of contemporary art, money, and power as opposed to beauty and ornamentation as a more global phenomenon.

“At this moment I do not know what will happen and that feels good. My purpose is to shake off old layers in order to be open to surprises and broader perspectives.”