C, 2019, 4K video, 16:9, stereo, 6 min 16 sec
Anhava Underground presents the video piece C by Hanna Saarikoski (born 1978). Her work combines drawing and painting with video, installation and performance in an original and multi-layered way. In the video piece C, a figure in a black costume of charcoal follows a circular route in a white space, leaving light marks on white paper. The fragile, hand-made charcoal costume covers the figure completely.
The material of the costume, drawing charcoal, is made by heating branches from a deciduous tree in an almost anaerobic state so that it will be charred instead of burning properly. It is material that has nearly been burnt away. It is related to our environment and our history in many ways: the carbon cycle is an essential part of the global ecosystem.
Despite its fragility, the charcoal can leave even prominent marks, arouse a variety of emotions in viewers, and serve as many things in this work. In Saarikoski’s video piece, drawing, leaving a mark and the concrete route of the figure gain the form of an event: the costume sewn together from pieces of charcoal, making a scratching and jingling sound when worn by the figure, is like a moving drawing, strange, surprising and gentle at the same time.
Currently living and working in Somerniemi and Helsinki, Hanna Saarikoski graduated from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2008. Her works are in the collections of the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art and the Saastamoinen Foundation, among others. In recent years, she has held solo exhibitions at venues including ARTag Gallery (2018) and Forum Box (2014) in Helsinki and she has participated in numerous group exhibitions and performance festivals in Finland and abroad, among others New Performance Turku (2018) and the Almost Cinema Festival at Kunstcentrum Vooruit in Ghent (2012).