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In Residence 1990-1999
The first residency apartments were located in TriBeCa, Manhattan. During the Institute’s inaugural year, plans were made to extend the Institute’s activities to the trending SoHo area in the city. Photo: Kari Soinio.
This year marks the Institute’s 30th anniversary. To celebrate the past three decades and to build on the ones ahead, we want to call attention to the plentiful history attached to our residency programs. We invite you on a journey from the 1990’s to the present, through the eyes and memories of our alumni.
Since 1990, The Finnish Cultural Institute in New York has been running residency programs for Finnish or Finland-based architects, designers, and visual artists in New York City. To this day, the Institute has hosted over 600 visual arts professionals.
This article highlights the residency programs during the Institute’s first decade of operation: 1990-1999. We asked seven of our alumni — visual artists, designers, and architects — for their recollections from their respective residencies:
What was it like to be a New York City artist-in-residence in the 1990’s?
How did the city and the residency shape you and your practice?
What is the most memorable experience from your residency period?
NORTH MOORE STREET AND BLEECKER STREET
The first residency apartments were located on North Moore Street in TriBeCa, Manhattan. The Institute, back then called ’Finnish Foundation for the Visual Arts,’ oversaw two, 200 square-meter, loft-residency apartments. “The studio was big and cozy,” recalls visual artist Reijo Hukkanen, one of the Institute’s first residency artists in 1990.
As the 1990’s drew to a close, the residency apartments moved from North Moore Street to Bleecker Street in NoHo, Manhattan. Located on the corner of Broadway, 77 Bleecker St., #919, was a spacious top floor studio space overlooking a sunny courtyard. The location was superb — only a few steps away from the SoHo art galleries featuring acclaimed artists.
ARRIVING IN THE CITY
The overwhelming yet awakening arrival in a city with over 8 million inhabitants and a dynamic street life shines through in many of the memories of our alumni. The flashbacks feature adventurous taxi rides and breathtaking cityscapes, all illustrating what it is like to experience New York for the first time, in real life. Visual artist Eeva-Liisa Isomaa recalls her first day in the city:
”The drive from the airport to Manhattan with a yellow cab was an incredible experience. Heavy drugs were visible in the New York street scene in 1990. I saw a woman injecting drugs in the car next to us, I also saw a person defecate behind a car. I was in jet lag… There was a party in the residency apartments that day, enormous flower arrangements in both rooms and a lot of party guests…”
Eeva-Liisa Isomaa was charmed by the city of New York and has, since 1990, visited the city on several occasions, including as an artist-in-residence with FCINY in 2008. Isomaa is a visual artist who explores memory, space, and belonging in her artistry through the mediums of photography and graphic design.
A first day in New York could also present moments of silence and spectacular scenery. Designer Ilona Rista depicts her first morning:
”We woke up, ate breakfast slowly, and went out to walk in the city. We were surprised to see how silent the city appeared and we wondered where everyone was. Only then we realized that it was 8 AM. Due to the time difference, we had woken up already at 5 AM. I remember that I had watched the movie ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ and I recognized the Empire State Building. The building had just opened and there were no lines so we went up. The view of the city with its skyscrapers looked like a thick spruce forest. In that moment, the city exploded in front of my eyes.”
Rista was drawn to apply for a residency in New York in order to, according to her: “experience new cultures, to make sketches, and to think further.” In 1996, Finland still felt the echoes of the early 1990’s depression; in Rista’s experience there was a need to open windows and doors.
Ilona Rista is a designer and visual artist who is specializes in making large-scale wood reliefs that incorporate acoustic properties. Since her first residency in 1996, Rista has visited New York several times for work, leisure, and as an artist-in-residence with FCINY in 2013.
NEW YORK DELIRIUM
The ways in which New York’s diverse cultural environment can influence new approaches and cause values to be reconsidered is something many of the interviewed alumni ascribe to their residency experiences. It is also good to recall that the 1990’s was the era of broadcast television, printed magazines, and fax machines — there was no 5G internet or social media providing a stream of sneak peaks to alternative voices and practices emerging on the other side of the world. In other words, surprises were awaiting. Designer Jouni Leino recalls his first residency with FCINY in 1993:
“My design heritage was in shock. It felt like a slap in the face and really educational. There were so many new aspects and dimensions to furniture design than what I had experienced before. I was purely exalted by the city. The scale of things.”
Jouni Leino is a Helsinki-based interior and furniture designer. The city of New York and its atmosphere spoke to Leino so strongly that he decided to apply for another residency period at FCINY over twenty years later, in 2016.
Revelations, shocks, and new ideas can also bring new energy, at least for designer Ilona Rista:
“When I returned back to Finland from the residency, I described to my friend that it felt as if a fresh breeze had gone through my head. There were so many new influences and views. A few years after, my focus shifted and I transferred to the architectural side and started making bigger constructions, entire walls. I don’t know what is what but I had a strong experience that the residency awakened a strong flow within me.”
MUSEUMS AND FIELD TRIPS
Museum visits, gallery tours, and field trips appear central to the residency experience for many alumni. “Everyday museums, drawing, and museums,” remembers visual artist Reijo Hukkanen of his daily routines in the city. Hukkanen’s many museum and gallery visits gave him inspiration and material for his artistry, even years in the future. One of Hukkanen’s New York-inspirations — a plastic whale figurine found in the Natural History Museum — served as a starting point for his public artwork ‘Laulupuut’ beside Musiikkitalo in the Helsinki city centre.
“Exhibitions can have an enormous impact on artists. They can make one see something from a new perspective,” notes visual artist Lena Séraphin who resided in New York in 1999 together with her family. For Séraphin, the focus of her residency was on gathering influences and ideas from exhibitions and museum visits, as well as on strengthening friendships and networking opportunities. To experience the city with her family and children brought new aspects to Séraphin’s residency. The shared residency experience made her contemplate on cultural differences and norms — how people relate to each other and meet each other in cities. Lena Séraphin is a visual artist and researcher based in Helsinki.
Many of the interview alumni spent their residency period together with partners, friends, and families. Architect Jaakob Solla resided in New York with his 2-year old daughter in 1999. Solla describes his memories from the residency with warmth when thinking back on the days spent in the city with his daughter visiting museums and making day trips to nearby parks, towns and architectural cites. During his residency, Solla conducted several architectural excursions, both to Boston and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) region and to the famous architectural sites of Eliel Saarinen and Eero Saarinen. Solla recalls these field trips as having a great impact on his architectural practice. Today, Solla runs the architecture firm Konkret with 20 employees in Helsinki.
GENERATING NEW CONNECTIONS
Architect Pia Sarpaneva spent her first residency with FCINY in 1993. Sarpaneva remembers how her residency created new relationships:
“The most impactful aspect of the residency time in New York was the many, and sometimes unexpected, encounters with architects and artists in which mutual interests carried over to invitations, discussions, and teaching collaborations in different universities and events, and those again generating new connections.”
An interview for an architecture faculty position brought Sarpaneva back to New York a year after her residency. The newly attained position served as a start for a continuous relationship with the city. Today, Pia Sarpaneva teaches Architectural Design Studios and Design Communication at the University of Texas.
A residency period in New York City can have long lasting effects. It can make one re-evaluate practices and realize alternative ways of making and thinking about visual art, design, and architecture. The time spent in the city can generate fruitful encounters with peers, new friends, colleagues, and work opportunities. The most resounding note is how many of the interviewed alumni express interest in applying again, if possible, for another residency period in New York.
In the next article, we will continue our journey through the Institute’s 30-year history by focusing on the first decade of 2000 and its’ residency programs. We will hear in depth from three visual art professionals how their New York residencies have shaped their artistic practices.
Text by Vilma Leminen