Tuomas A. Laitinen
Solvent

03.06. - 03.07.2022

Tuomas A. Laitinen’s fourth solo show at Helsinki Contemporary titled Solvent is an exhibition about vessels, containment, symbiosis and the question of distribution.

Asked about the definition of life in Gravity Assist podcast, the director of NASA’s Astrobiology Program Mary Voytek replied that ”...one thing really common to all definitions is it requires a solvent…a medium or a solution that allows reactions to take place”. The exhibition's name comes from this little snippet. ”Solvent” also refers to the ability to settle one's debts.

The exhibition is based on containment vats or spill pallets used for environmental protection for different industries. These containers have a particular use in storing hazardous materials and solvents, but in this context, they also refer to 1970s and 1980s science fiction sets, where a service tunnel of a spaceship (like Nostromo in Alien, 1979) might have these kinds of steel grids. On these table-like containers, there are sculptures from the series of works that Laitinen has produced for Octopuses, and a setting connected to the history and mythology of coffee. These works are all related to Laitinen’s research on shapeshifting bodies, other-than-human oceanic lifeforms, and the alteration of neurotransmitters. In a broader sense, the pieces highlight the sensual qualities of glass as biomorphic forms made with the agency of sand, gravity, and air, and also as a mediator in the history of knowledge production. Glass has made it possible to see very near and very far. In the exhibition, the material acts as a “carrier bag” container, a tear vial, an alchemical tool, and a shelter.  

Solvent also presents a new multichannel ultrasonic audio installation, The Cauldron: a sympoietic collage of recipes, bowel-like sounds, polyrhythmic breathing, and environmental data. The work is inspired by the three witches in Macbeth. These characters can be seen as forecasters of future events and as recipe makers and world-builders.

A new VR work is an experimental proposal to make vision tangible. It uses eye-tracking technology to allow viewers to alter the scenario with their eyes, accompanied by a delirious audio collage which acts as a commentary for the work. The real-time simulation is a strange ritual of consequences and codependencies, considering the fickle quality of vision and how it alters the world. 

Tuomas A. Laitinen (b. 1976, Riihimäki, lives and works in Helsinki) composes situations and installations that inquire into the porous interconnectedness of language, body, and matter within morphing ecosystems. Laitinen´s works have been shown in the 21st Biennale of Sydney, 7th Bucharest Biennale, Screen City Biennale 2019 (Stavanger), Vdrome (online screening), Gallery SADE Los Angeles, Amado Art Space (Seoul), Moving Image (New York), A Tale of a Tub (Rotterdam), Art Sonje Center (Seoul), Helsinki Contemporary, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, MOCA Shanghai and Yeh Art Gallery, New York. Laitinen was awarded The Fine Arts Academy of Finland Prize in 2014. In 2021, his works were shown in the Helsinki Biennial and he received the prestigious AVEK Award. A comprehensive article titled ”Reaching Beyond the Human” on Laitinen’s artistic practice was published in Art in America in 2022.

Tuomas A. Laitinen’s work for this exhibition has been supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland and the Finnish Cultural Foundation. 

Main partners of the exhibition: Denios (containers), Pro Av Saarikko (LED display) Varjo and Daata (VR work).

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