OSKARI TOLONEN

1982 / Tampere / sculpture

DREAMS FROM THE ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS

We get a school assignment titled “Living Space”. My proposal is an exhibition of framed works that turn around on the wall to show their underside. The winner – a piece listing the results of a presidential election – is selected by public vote in the local grocery store. At first it appears conceptual, Haackean, but its nature is altered by the electorate’s historical, genealogical role as abusers of certain classes and women being showcased in an uncanny diorama.

—

I am in the school stairwell between classes. I bump into the Painting Professor. Immediately she asks me whether I’ve had time to interpret the artworks, paintings, I’ve seen recently. Stutteringly I reply “No,” and try to explain, “I’ve been in battle.” Yet she refuses to take the war I’m referring to seriously. The schoolyard is a battlefield, the students at war with each other. (At least the weaponry is diverse. Some have higher-order technology, some have nothing, others use whatever they’ve found in the garbage.)

— 

The whole Academy is suddenly mobilized. There is wax on offer somewhere.

The announcements keep saying that a batch of yellow wax will be distributed soon, but in the end, all we see are sticky, pale brown bits of it.

—

“Soon after our benign chat had begun, he started talking to me in an ever so slightly cryptic manner. It was then I saw before his eyes a symbol forming, and could barely understand it signalling the beginning of my being ushered towards False Understanding.”