Helena Keskküla’s performance at ISCP Open Studios

Helena Keskküla in her ISCP studio, October 2023. Photo: ISCP

 

Helena Keskküla’s durational performance A Cloud Study will take place on November 10th and 11th as part of ISCP’s annual Fall Open Studios Program.

 

The International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) residency allows artists to take time to analyze their previous work and to develop new ideas, as well as visit various art institutsions in New York. Helena’s residency is taking place from October 1st to November 30th.

 

According to the artist, A Cloud Study features a character dressed in a grey suit who swirls cotton candy clouds from morning to night. The little clouds slowly fill up the space, welcoming the audience to taste the silvery sweet puffs. Freedom swirls gently. The fabric of dreams doesn’t seem to coil up easily. Sweet sugar turns to hard caramel too quickly. The clouds aren’t as white as they used to be.”

 

Helena Keskküla is a multidisciplinary artist whose background in film and video has informed a robust installation and sculptural practice meditating on runes, stones, time and the materiality of remembrance. Using humor and self-consciousness as well as failures, Keskküla tackles universal themes in her works. In her artistic practice, interprestations of mythology are entwined with contemporary materials, performance art, and the female gaze. She received an MA in Fine Arts from Sandberg Institute, Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Netherlands, in 2021, and a BA from Estonian Academy of Arts in 2015.

 

Recent solo exhibitions include Hard Boiled Holes with Jihye Rhii, Boo2, Amsterdam, NL (2022); Blossoms and Boogeymen, Telenovelas are Stupid, Hobusepea Gallery, Tallinn, ES (2019); Sandgrain’s Ballade, Avangard Gallery, Pärnu, ES (2017); and Pärnu is Drowning, So Am I, Draakoni Cellar Gallery, Tallinn, ES (2016).

 

The International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) supports the creative development of artists and curators, and promotes exchange through residencies and public programs. ISCP is housed in a former factory building in Brooklyn, and has 35 studios, 2 galleries, and a project space. Since 2015, Marge Monko, Rael Artel, Paul Kuimet, Anu Vahtra, Laura Põld, Mia Raadik and Taavi Suisalu have taken part in the ISCP residency.

Opening reception on Friday November 10th from 6pm to 9pm.

 

Open hours Saturday November 11th from 1pm to 7pm.

 

The ISCP Fall Open Studios Program takes place at 1040 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, New York.

 

The residency is supported by the Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center (ECADC) and the Estonian Ministry of Culture.