The Norm – Episode 1

The Norm – Episode 1 deals with the actions and emotions connected to physically fitting the norm.

Throwback to the weight loss fad of the 90s: cling film wrapping in the laundry room, along with dry brushing/industrial cleaning products on skin. Wrapping was done in the sauna, under one’s clothes or before exercising and it is still used as popular means of weight loss for extreme definition before 2000’s “healthy is the new skinny -era”. The skin sweats under the wrap and removes fluids, thus creating an illusion of permanent changes in weight. However, no one ever told us that the change isn’t permanent, that toxins gather under the skin while wrapping. Nobody told us that it could lead to an allergic reaction at best and death at worst.

Wrapping doesn’t solve, neither does dry brushing cellulite.

An installation is built around this video work of domestic objects also displayed in the video to unite the inside and outside. It asks how immune/active players are we in these fads, where does the line of participant and a viewer end and what is the norm trying to fit the norm. When displayed its ultimate purpose is to unapologetically take space in institutions, something that is usually not allowed for marginalised bodies to do. With their work, as always the collective wishes to question what kind of voices, works or bodies are seen within the context of art.

DETAILS

FORMAT:
video, installation, soundscape

DURATION:
09:00 min

LANGUAGE:
ENGLISH / FINNISH

CONTENT NOTES

weight loss, violence, an heavy bass ambiance

ADDITIONAL CREDITS

Film production assistance : Fiona Eloné

EXHIBITED

Flow Festival /
August 2019

Ateneum Art Museum / October 2019