Nykytaideryhmä Kylkiäinen: Waste Compositions and Assortment Portraits

Nykytaideryhmä Kylkiäinen rejoices over big and heavy matters. The collective is dealing with randomness, chaotism, uselessness, materia floating everywhere and disposability – the problem that can not be solved. The installations, which form as the results of our work, are feelings, flashes and extracts. Those contain natural and artificial resources and worries. Kylkiäinen wants to slowly head to the understanding of present moment using magnifying glass and further-looking as our tools. The exhibition has been carried out with Kone Foundation grant. The partners of the grant period are Vammalan Romu Oy ja Nextiili ry.

”We circle around waste stations and companies from various fields on a regular basis to study the functionalities they offer, information about society and materials. The knowledge and materials for our works are gathered from those places. We select the materials and forms for our works mostly from the thoughts and conversations provoked by these visits. We draft and gather ideas for forthcoming works in the yards and halls of waste stations, by people, machines and devices. Inside fenced and secured areas there are mountains of consumption, stained valleys and messy straits. The scale of water consumption during the lifespan of products, that are coveted and increasingly more disposable, seems to be boundless. How can there be enough fresh water on this planet for this.”

Nykytaideryhmä Kylkiäinen works as a pair of visual artists AMK Katriina Sjöblom and Kati Juurikka. Since 2012, Kylkiäinen has been making neat and aestheticized presentations, performances, sculptures and installations out of junk and trash. The contradiction between the subject and the materials and finished works is meaningful. The collective has chosen a clinical perspective for difficult topics. Things that seem heavy and hopeless appear in works as light and easily approachable, containing unpopular information. The work is content-oriented and its aesthetics are based on practical work in recycling and waste handling.