Incomplete Descriptions
European Exchange Academy
August-September 2010
Jaakko Pallasvuo
Works
1. Letter
I wrote a letter and hid it in the studio building. I told people about the letter.
2. Portrait
I observed someone's gestures from a distance and made detailed notes.
3. White Flag
I tied a mosquito net to a severed tree branch.
4. Choice
I broke a branch into three parts and worked on one of them.
5. Drawing
I burned an X on a piece of wood using sunlight and a magnifying glass.
6. The Acknowledgement That This Is Boring Doesn't Make It Any Less Boring
I asked someone to stand still and hold a sign saying I KNOW THIS IS BORING for one minute.
7. Funeral Confetti
I cut VHS tape into small pieces. I scattered the pieces on the floor.
8. The Room
a) I removed the surface material from a part of a wall to make bricks visible.
b) I arranged objects ( mosquito net, two tree branches, two metallic table frames, four pieces of rope ) to make a division in the room.
c) I cleaned the floor but did not do it well.
d) I placed a small piece of paper on a spiderweb and later removed it.
e) I asked someone to enter the room and casually drink the water from a plastic cup placed on the floor.
Research ( A Letter From Camp )
1.
a) I don't know how much I want you to know.
b) I want you to know that I don't care.
2.
3. She assumes that I'm lazy. I'm looking at her glasses.
a) It's all up to you.
b) You need to push yourself.
c) Use that feeling.
4.
5. I listen to her talk about her work. I nod. That's nice, I say.
6.
a) I walk around the building aimlessly. People are touching video cameras and organic materials.
b) In July in Berlin there was a blackout. People in the building opposite brought candles to their balconies and sat there reading or talking or looking at photographs. I stared at them for some time. Later, I saw some people fucking in the living room of one of the first floor apartments. You couldn't see much, a pale back hovering over a leather couch.
7.
a) I want people to see the room without forming an opinion about it.
b) I want to point out that it's interesting.
8.
The room has two doors and one window. One door leads to the hallway, the other door to a similar room on the right. The window has metal bars. The room is on the ground floor. The floorboards are arranged in a diagonal pattern. There are hooks and cables and former lamps and electrical sockets. There are spiderwebs in the corners. There is a lot of other stuff.
9.
– I really like your breathing room.
– I can't take credit for how the wind moves.
10. The room and the objects placed there are not the work. The text is not the work. The drawings are not the work. You're not going to see them.
11.
a) I fall asleep at lectures, at my desk, on a rug, in an armchair, in another kind of chair, on the floor.
b) People take pictures of me while I sleep.
c) During the night I grind my teeth and have nightmares.
12. Things should be cool.
13. I try to draw him without him noticing. He notices.
14. I'm holding the string, I'm not sure the timing is right. We pull the string, it cuts into the skin on my right index finger. The chair moves, a beer bottle has been placed on it and falls.
15. I'm extremely similar to another person.
16.
17. There's a camera filming her filming them. The other cameras are in the crowd, in a tree, behind the hill, attached to her, in his face. I'm filming from a distance. I make sure I'm not visible in any of the footage.
18. We got swing dancing.
19.
a) They're looking at the drawing while I'm drawing it.
b) How long will it take for you to recognize my brilliance?
20.
a) A dragonfly is flying around, it keeps touching the 80's floor material.
b) A laser printer is resting on an oriental rug.
21.
a) I'm in the secret room trying to make a calculated gesture. I become aggressive.
I empty a bottle of ink on the wall. I sweep the ink around with my hand, some of it goes into an open wound. I neatly hang a red curtain.
b) None of it made sense.
c) I see the red curtain in the hallway. Someone has removed it.
22. Some voices over others.
23. She's crying. I try my best not to look at her. I have an mp3 player. The same song is playing over and over again but I don't care to change it.
24.
a) I feel guilty for every passive-aggressive sigh and awkward expression.
b) This is not effortless or natural.
25. Style is the underlying purpose of everything.
26.
a) Are you freaking out, he asks. I say yes, he asks why and I reply something but I immediately forget what it was that I said.
b) I announce that I'm leaving.
c) This is not my private conflict.
27. He's sitting in the armchair, he's staring at the wall and toying with the frisbee absent-mindedly.
28. I've only had time to complain.
29. A monumental glass fiber fountain is in the room. A view of a computer desktop is projected on it. The water is flowing. Photo Booth is open and I can see myself on the water. I'm smiling.
30.
31
32.
a) . I debate for hours over the placement and meaning of a found object. In the hospital 50 meters away people are learning how to walk again.
b) I'm afraid of being pretentious so I'll just not say it.
33. I'm trying to draw the lake, I don't want to swim. The sun is setting. I feel uncomfortable. On the way home I can't think of anything.
34.
35.
a) People talk about other people hooking up.
b) He announces that he is 100% straight. I didn't know desire could be so static and exact.
c) Most everyone agrees that the refusal of desire is sovereign: "I don't want to, that's all!" A white-collar bourgeois or an immigrant worker will tell you the same thing. And the left-wing student will repeat it even louder, for he has made desire sacred intellectually. As for me, when I hear someone express non-desire, I hear something behind it that could be: "Don't insist! Capitalism has inscribed this refusal in my body. "
d) On Saturday I spend hours in public transport to end up at an opening. American men wearing childish baseball caps. One of them has a really interesting nose. The work exhibited is a 74 minute fake Godard movie. In the first room a plastic alligator is holding a painting in its mouth. I'm amused for 30 seconds and then begin missing the point.
e) 1968 parodies.
36. I dance around the fire. It comes as a surprise to others that I'm able to do so.