CHICKEN SKIN – Anne Järvi, Emmi Kallio, Jenni Karhapää, Niina Kiiveri, Anna Pekkala, and Ismo Torvinen
Chicken skin can be caused by many things: cold, excitement, fever, fear, and admiration all trigger the same physical reaction. The fear-induced goosebumps arise from anticipation, when one suspects that something terrible is about to happen. Fear is the loss of a sense of security and the transformation of the familiar into something alien. It consists of startles and childhood fears that can’t be explained away.
The Chicken Skin exhibition focuses on everyday horrors, small personal experiences, and collective fears, as they are more fascinating to us than a bucket of blood. Horror entangles us in a twisting feeling, covering everything beneath it and locking it inside. Our skin stands on end.
The artists of the Chicken Skin exhibition are Anne Järvi, Emmi Kallio, Jenni Karhapää, Niina Kiiveri, Anna Pekkala, and Ismo Torvinen.
Anne Järvi’s body of work reflects on the concepts of watching and guarding. We are constantly being watched, often giving our consent or at least tolerating it, as part of modern life. However, the ease of surveillance can lead to situations where someone is always behind us, even when we don’t want them to be, or when we are unaware.
Emmi Kallio feels the terror of the inevitable aging and death of the body. Her paintings are a desperate attempt to aestheticize the decay of the body and to find a similar sense of decay and romanticism in it, akin to the silent death of abandoned houses.
In Jenni Karhapää’s paintings, post-apocalyptic landscapes glow in radiation, while mutant animals have taken over deserted suburbs.
Niina Kiiveri’s greatest fear is that the world will be swallowed up by an immense glitter whirlpool. In her works, she attempts to give form to the fears that have been and those that still exist.
Anna Pekkala’s piece explores different levels of surrender, from wallowing in self-pity to the agonizing questioning of existence. “I’m going to lie in the coffin,” a joke echoes when martyrdom rises in the face of difficulties. But what about true surrender, where humor has no place? The transformation of a bed from a resting place into a platform for addressing expectations, inevitable events, worries, and fears, meticulously examined.
Ismo Torvinen’s greatest fear is the one-sided development of artificial intelligence. The only way to combat this fear is by developing other types of mechanical experiencers. Torvinen’s piece deals with mold, the silent horror of homes. Somewhere in the insulation, in the corner of the ceiling, under the baseboards, lives an intrusive organism that feasts on death. Once it has grown enough, it releases billions of tiny spores into the air, contaminating everything – furniture, food, animals, and humans.
Translated with ChatGPT