Maija Timonen

Artist and writer Maija Timonen is Triangle Art Association’s and FCINY’s artist-in-residence for September–November 2016.  Her practice, spanning filmmaking, writing and performance, has in recent years focused on examining and interpreting the consequences of the changing economic landscape on women's bodies and emotional lives.

The core of Timonen’s multidisciplinary work lies in experimental fiction. Mixing theory with everyday occurrences, her debut fiction book The Measure of Reality (2015, Book Works, London) narrates stories about a stealthily unfolding crisis of heterosexuality. The work is situated in the absurd intersection of analysis and association, exploring an infected relationship between fantasy and reality.

Timonen’s recent projects include a live performance The Only Living Boy, which took place in Duane Hanson’s exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in London in August 2015. A synthesis of Timonen’s writing and the actors’ creativity, the piece consists of two women’s casual, yet fragmented conversation and the presence of a speechless man. The hierarchies between subject and object shift as the actors’ bodies interact with Hanson’s life-like sculptures.

"There is a certain economy to relationships, one reflected in the language that often surrounds talking about them. Lets call it emonomics. People talk about “investing” in relationships, cutting their losses, also the word “value” (multifaceted as it is) features heavily in all sorts of self-helpish communications. When people consider their sense of self-worth, how (or whether) they are “valued” in their relationships, nobody ever seems to consider the hard sell, the flogging of your wares in a collapsed market."

– From the Measure of Reality by Maija Timonen

During her residency, Timonen will be working on a new work of fiction, a novel exploring the questions of reproduction, family, mobility and the relation of these to the decline of the middle-class. 

Triangle is a non-profit arts organization whose mission is to support emerging and mid-career international and national visual artists, encouraging dialogue and experimentation through workshops, residencies and exhibition opportunities. The partnership between Triangle Arts Association and FCINY is funded by The Finnish Cultural Foundation.

http://www.maijatimonen.info/